Camera Phones Plaza

ASUS is known as a late entrant to the smartphone game, but that doesn’t mean they’re slow learner. More than that, rumors say that the company will be launching an Android-based phone during the first half of 2009. It makes sense, if you think about it. This is an Android-handsets era that we’re facing nowadays, and everyone should consider the Google platform if they want to exist. If rumors are correct, then Asustek Computer (one of the three companies Asus split into on January 3, 2008; the other two were Pegatron and Unihan) is considering such an option.



We already know that ASUS was invited to join the Open Handset Alliance and DigiTimes is now reporting that the company is, in fact, planning to launch an Android-based handset. Rumors also say that the device will most probably be released in Taiwan first, under ASUS’s own brand, before selling it overseas.

In other news, the company sources also noted that Asustek plans to gradually phase out EMP-based (Ericsson Mobile Platform) handsets and instead will switch to handset platforms from Qualcomm and Marvell.



While launching its 3.5G P552w PDA phone in the Taiwan market on October 28, Asustek plans to launch one 3G handset built using Qualcomm’s dual-core solutions in the first quarter of next year, the sources noted. All of this is pretty exciting and even if the handset market is actually crowded, there are many manufacturers who dare to use the Android and to put their hopes up about putting their own unique stamp on the powerful platform. Asustek’s shipments of smartphones in the Taiwan market totaled 30,000 units in the first nine months of this year, and the company expects the annual shipment volumes to reach 40,000 units by year-end.



Now, if you had to choose one company and one company only to produce a Google Android handset, which would you choose?

(Source gadgets.boingboing.net)