ASUS chief thinks Eee Pad will take on iPad

ASUS wants to transform itself into 'another Apple' and has a device in the works to help it along, company CEO Jonney Shih said Wednesday. He hopes his Taiwan firm will be put on the Mac maker's level but serve as an open-source alternative that uses Android and Chrome OS, not just closed options like Windows.

Shih also teased that ASUS will have a "killer product" in June that could help towards this goal. He hasn't provided any details of his own but is known to be referring to the Eee Pad, a small tablet that is now ostensibly set to compete against the iPad. Most details are still indefinite, but it's likely to cost below $500 and to use NVIDIA's Tegra 250 as well as Android. With a screen between 4 and 7 inches across, it's more likely to be a large MID (mobile Internet device) than a full tablet computer.

News of the company's ambitions arrives just as it has formalized the spin-off of Pegatron as a separate manufacturing company and has entered into previously untapped Asian countries like Indonesia, where it hopes to boost its market share.

By Electronista Staff