The tablet market has never been as lucrative or as varied as it is today. In 2013, Gartner (1) saw the worldwide device shipments of tablets rise from 120 million in 2012 to 201 million in 2013, and projects shipments of 276 million in 2014.
If there ever was a time to create solutions to meet demand, it is now, and the Taiwanese giant, ASUS, has done just that.
"ASUS has long been known for creating devices that are unique and a little bit on the different side," says Diana Hughes, ASUS product manager at Tarsus Technologies. "Their PadFone, Transformer Book and the Nexus 7 have been designed to meet very specific market needs and they have also created market segments where none existed before."
ASUS took the tablet trend and leveraged it to achieve record results. In the third quarter of 2013, according to the IDC (3), the company rose to third place in the top five tablet vendors worldwide.
The range of tablet offerings from ASUS is voluptuous indeed. There are the smaller form factors, for example the Google-inspired and driven Nexus 7 with its high-resolution screen and rich feature set, all set to fit into the user's pocket. Then there are the extraordinarily powerful tablets such as the Transformer Book that offers dual operating systems and three-in-one functionality for superb adaptability across consumer and corporate markets. And, of course, there is the phablet - the smartphone and tablet hybrid that everyone thought ludicrous but ended up becoming a very strong seller across the globe.
"The Transformer Book is a superb proposition for the channel heading into 2014 as it provides the user with both Android and Windows 8 and it can switch between being a laptop, a tablet or a desktop PC," says Hughes. "This makes it extremely versatile for the enterprise market, especially as more organisations shift towards employees bringing their own devices to work and cutting costs with hot desking and technology infrastructure."
Gartner believes the device market for 2013 was largely driven by tablet and smartphone sales, with PCs and ultramobiles nudging it along clumsily, and the PC drifting even further down the tech food chain as ubiquitous tablet solutions arrived on the market at neater price points. This trend doesn't look set to change in 2014, especially as the economy remains stagnant and cost becomes increasingly important to the corporate.
"Solutions such as the Transformer Book, the Nexus 7 or the PadFone give users far more flexibility than the common PC or laptop, technology traditionally associated with the corporate," says Hughes. "The Nexus 7 is a brilliant consumer fit with its slight form and multimedia capabilities, Google has created a truly versatile beast right there. The three-in-one offering such as the Transformer Book, or the phablet, mean less devices with more functionality at a better price, something that the enterprise and the consumer needs right now."
Sources:
1. Gartner: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2525515
2.Engadget: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/06/asus-q1-2013/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget
3. IDC: http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS24420613
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