Eee PC maker Asus will release a Google Android-based smartphone during the first six months of 2009. According to Digitimes, the company plans to launch its own Android-powered handset in the first half of 2009. It’s also said that the phone could initially appear only in Asus’ native territory, Taiwan. Later, it may be tweaked for what are called “overseas clients” – carriers, presumably.
The sources mentioned believe Asus will release the handset under its own brand name in its native Asia, but may re-brand for ‘clients’ (i.e. carriers, in the same way HTC has done for T-Mobile) in other territories. Asus already offers a range of Windows Mobile smartphones – Â the M930 Â and the P750 here – but it has yet to win the carrier support that’s essentially to take the company out of its unlocked-only niche into the wider mobile phone market.Â
The company has been dabbling with Windows Mobile-powered devices for a few years, but hasn’t received anything like the worldwide success of companies like HTC in this segment.So leveraging its successful Eee brand might be an option, when combined with the low cost, open source Android OS, to help bring its mobile phone products into the view of the world’s public.
