An interesting interview with Asus CFO Nick Wu from TaipeiTimes.com about the company’s plans for their tablet line-up.
Wu says that Asus is planning to introduce new tablets in June. This would indicate a Computex 2016 unveiling which is not surprising.
Asus however is not expecting to surpass last year’s 5.9 million unit sales volume. This in part due to the global drop in demand for tablets.
Sales of Asus tablets in the first quarter of 2016 is down 33% from 1.5 million units a year ago. The annual decline was 36% for Asus tablet sales last year.
From our perspective, the interest certainly in the ZenPad S 8.0 was very high. There was a lot of per order activity which indicated as much. The ZenPad 8.0 (Z580C) and the incredibly low price point caught buzz around the tech websites, but the availability at that time was limited to Best Buy only. The hero Z580CA model made it to North America and sold out quite quickly, and the restocking was delayed. Some of the lack of Asus tablet sales may be partially attributable to lack of inventory, at least from the ZenPad S 8.0 perspective in North America.
The tablet market really needs apps and games that push the hardware and make the older tablets more dated. If older tablets can still do what people need them for, the incentive to upgrade isn’t there. The demand may be low for tablets, but it may be a lack of need for buying a newer tablet. Let’s hope for some continued support for stylus input in the upcoming ZenPad tablets in June.
[source: TaipeiTimes.com]
