Asus drops plans to launch 7in tablet in the UK

Posted on 13 Jan 2012 at 10:46

While Asus was keen to show off its Android-powered tablets at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, there's some bad news: a planned seven-inch model, designed to provide budget competition to the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Tab and Amazon Kindle Fire, won't be coming to the UK.

Although the as-yet unnamed seven-inch Eee Pad tablet, which features the same quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor as the company's flagship Transformer Prime tablet, will be launched in the US at $249 (around £160), the company's marketing manager has confirmed that Asus has no immediate plans to bring it to the UK.

"In the UK we don't see a demand for the seven-inch tablet at the moment," John Swatton, Asus UK marketing manager, told The Inquirer in an interview. "[Instead,] we will be focusing on releasing a Padfone, which is a smartphone and tablet hybrid."

Originally unveiled at the Computex event in Taipei last year, the Padfone uses Google's Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system to create a truly hybrid device: as well as being a powerful smartphone, the Padphone docks into the rear of a large-screen tablet to give consumers the best of both worlds in a single device.

It's a logical progression from Asus's current best-selling design, the Transformer; rather than replacing separate netbooks and tablets through the use of a battery-backed keyboard docking station, Asus is aiming to replace separate smartphones and tablets.

The news will come as a blow to those who had hoped for a budget Tegra 3 powered tablet, but Swatton hasn't completely ruled out a UK launch once the Padfone has been released into the market.

Author: Gareth Halfacree

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