At a small press conference held in Taiwan renectly, ASUS chairman and president revealed an Android-powered smarpthone from the company is due later in 2009. A Monday Digitimes article maintains chairman Jonney Shih and ASUS president and CEO Jerry Shen had a discussion with the local media and revealed this information, along with a positive outlook on the notebook market and some plans for environmentally-friendly products in the future.

There was no indication regarding the specs of the phone, but it is expected to be a different device from the Android-based device ASUS is developing in conjunction with GPS navigation device maker Garmin.

At the conference, Shih said he expects notebook demand to increase during the rest of the year, thanks to Windows 7 and the upcoming Intel Calpella (Core i5/i7) platform for notebooks. Smartbooks are especially expected to be in strong demand, Shih said.