Asus

ASUSTeK Computer Inc.

Type	Public LSE: ASKD TWSE: 2357
Industry	Computer systems Computer peripherals Computer hardware Electronics
Founded	April 2, 1990[1]
Founder(s)	TH Tung Ted Hsu
Headquarters	Beitou District, Taipei,  Taiwan
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Jonney Shih (Chairman) Jerry Shen (CEO) TH Tung (VP) Ted Hsu (VP)
Products	Motherboards Graphics cards Laptops Netbooks Monitors Multimedia Servers Workstations Pocket PCs PDAs Hand held Navigations UPS
Revenue	US$21.2 billion (2009)[2] 7.9% from 2008
Profit	US$0.52 billion (2009)[2] 37.9% from 2008
Employees	104,294 (2009)[2]
Website	Asus.com

ASUSTeK Computer Incorporated (traditional Chinese: 華碩電腦股份有限公司; pinyin: Huáshuò Diànnaǒ Gǔfèn Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī) is a multinational computer product manufacturer centered in Taiwan. Its product range includes motherboards, laptops, servers and mobile phones. The company also produces components for other manufacturers, including Apple Inc., Dell, Falcon Northwest and Hewlett-Packard.

Sometimes identified by its brand name Asus (usually pronounced /ɑːˈsuːs/, or /ˈeɪsəs/ in English-speaking countries), the company is listed on both the London Stock Exchange (LSE: ASKD) and the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE: 2357). As of 26 November 2009 (2009 -11-26)^[update], 29.2% of PCs sold in the previous 12 months worldwide came with an Asus motherboard.^[3] The company's 2009 revenues reached US$21.2 billion.^[2]

Asus appears in BusinessWeek’s "InfoTech 100" and "Asia’s Top 10 IT Companies" rankings. Wall Street Journal Asia ranks it number one in quality and service, and it leads the IT Hardware category of the 2008 Taiwan Top 10 Global Brands survey with a total brand value of US$1.324 billion.^[4]

Corporate information

Asus has its headquarters in Beitou District, Taipei.^[5]

History

TH Tung, Ted Hsu, Wayne Hsieh, and MT Liao founded Asus on 2 April 1990^[1] in Taipei, Taiwan — all four founders worked as computer engineers for Acer. The company explains the name Asus as originating from Pegasus, the winged horse of Greek mythology.^[6][7] The new organization used only the last four letters of the word in order to give the resulting name a high position in alphabetical listings.^[8]

In 2008, shipments from Asus, ECS, Gigabyte, and MSI totaled 104.86 million units. Asus led with 52 million units, followed by ECS with 20 million, MSI with 18 million, and Gigabyte with 16.6 million.

Relationship with Intel

In the early 2000s, Taiwan-based motherboard manufacturers had not yet established their leading positions in the computer-hardware business. Intel Corporation would supply any new processors to more established companies like IBM first, and the Taiwanese companies would have to wait for approximately six months after IBM received their engineering prototypes.^[9] As of 2009^[update] Asus receives Intel engineering samples ahead of its competitors.^[9]

Asus has become one of the main supporters of Intel's Common Building Block initiatives.

Corporate restructuring, 2007-

In January 2007, Asus started restructuring its operations.^[10] The company split into three distinct operational units: Asus, Pegatron and Unihan. The Asus brand was applied solely to first-party branded computers. Pegatron handled OEM manufacturing of motherboards and components, and Unihan focused on non-PC manufacturing such as cases and molding.

In the process of restructuring, the highly criticized pension-plan restructuring effectively zeroed out the existing pension balances. The company paid out all contributions previously made by employees.^[11]

Open Handset Alliance

On 9 December 2008, the Open Handset Alliance announced that ASUSTek Computer Inc. had become one of 14 new members of the organization. These "new members will either deploy compatible Android devices, contribute significant code to the Android Open Source Project, or support the ecosystem through products and services that will accelerate the availability of Android-based devices."^[12]

Timeline

• 2002: Forms subsidiary ASRock.
• September/October 2003: debuts in the cellphone market with the J100 model.^[13]
• September 2005: releases the first PhysX accelerator card.^[14]
• December 2005: enters the LCD TV market with the TLW32001 model, initially only available in the Taiwan market.^[15]
• January 2006: Asus announces that it will cooperate with Lamborghini to develop its VX series.^[16]
• 9 March 2006: Asus announced as one of the producers of the first Microsoft Origami models, together with Samsung and Founder Technology.^[17]
• 8 August 2006: Asus announces a joint venture with Gigabyte Technology.^[18](subscription required)
• 5 June 2007: Asus announces the Eee PC at COMPUTEX Taipei 2007
• 9 September 2007: Asus indicates support for Blu-Ray, announcing the release of a BD-ROM/DVD writer PC drive, BC-1205PT.^[19] The release of several Blu-Ray based notebooks follows.
• 31 October 2007: Asus launches a PDA/smartphone range in the UK market
• 3 January 2008: Asus formally splits into three companies: ASUSTeK, Pegatron and Unihan.^[20]
• May 2008: Incompatibility of Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard with Windows XP SP3 first discovered
• 12 August 2008: Asus produces a new motherboard (ZT23) capable of clocking a processing speed of 120 GHz, a record.
• 22 August 2008: Details of the N10 leaked online.^[21]
• December 2008: Asus releases a beta BIOS update that potentially fixes the Windows XP SP3 incompatibility with the Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard.

Manufacturing facilities and service centers

As of 2009^[update] Asus has manufacturing facilities in Taiwan (Taipei, Lujhu, Nangan, Guishan), Mainland China (Suzhou), Mexico (Ciudad Juárez) and the Czech Republic (Ostrava). The Asus Hi-Tech Park, located in Suzhou, China, covers 540,000 square meters, roughly the size of 82 soccer fields.

Asus claims a monthly production capacity of two million motherboards and 150,000 notebook computers.^[22]

Asus operates 50 service sites in 32 countries and has over 400 service partners worldwide. It provides support in 37 languages.

Products

Asus produces motherboards, graphics cards, sound cards, optical disc drives, PDAs, computer monitors, laptops, servers, networking products, mobile phones, computer cases, computer components, and computer cooling systems.

An Asus AMD motherboard with an AMD Phenom II processor mounted, along with the stock heatsink and fan.

Eee

Since its launch in October 2007, the Eee PC netbook has garnered numerous awards, including Forbes Asia’s Product of the Year,^[23] Stuff Magazine’s Gadget of the Year and Computer of the Year,^[24] NBC.com’s Best Travel Gadget, Computer Shopper's Best Netbook of 2008, PC Pro's Hardware of the Year, PC World's Best Netbook, and DIME magazine’s 2008 Trend Award Winner. Asus's Essentio desktop - marketed as a home entertainment PC with an HDMI port, remote control and high gloss black finish - has been discontinued.

Asus subsequently added several products to its Eee lineup, including:

• Eee Box, a compact nettop
• Eee Top, an all-in-one touchscreen computer housed in an LCD monitor enclosure,
• Eee Stick, a plug-and-play wireless controller for the PC platform that translates users’ physical hand-motions into corresponding movements onscreen

On 6 March 2009, Asus debuted its Eee Box B202, which PCMag saw as "the desktop equivalent of the ASUS EeePC".^[25]

With its price range between US$269 and US$299, this desktop competed directly with the Mac Mini.^[26]

GPS Devices

The Asus R700t GPS device includes TMC (Traffic Message Channel). ^[27]

Corporate responsibility

Green Asus

In 2000, Asus officially launched Green Asus,^[28] a company-wide sustainable computing initiative overseen by a steering committee led by Jonney Shih, the Chairman of ASUSTek Computer Inc. Green Asus pursues what the company calls the "Four Green Home Runs", namely: "Green Design, Green Procurement, Green Manufacturing, and Green Service and Marketing".^[29]

Green Asus measures

• As of 2009^[update] Green Asus restricts 37 hazardous substances, 31 more than the 6 stipulated by the European Union RoHS.
• Asus designs its notebooks to meet Energy Star standards. As of 2009^[update] over 50 Asus notebooks have Energy Star certification.
• In 2005, Asus launched Taiwan’s first GPMS (Green Product Management System) information-technology platform.
• In 2006, Asus became the first computer manufacturer in Taiwan to develop an easy-to-reuse and easy-to-recycle end-of-life "green design" system.
• In September 2006, Asus initiated a free take-back program for all Asus-manufactured products in the USA.

Recognition

In 2006, Asus obtained IECQ (IEC Quality Assessment System for Electronic Components) HSPM (Hazardous Substance Process Management) certification for its headquarters and for all of its manufacturing sites.^[30]

In 2007, Oekom Research, an independent research institute specializing in corporate responsibility assessment, recognized Asus as a "highly environmental friendly company" in the "Computers, Peripherals and Office Electronics Industry".^[31]

In October 2008, Asus received 11 EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) Gold Awards for its products,^[32] including four of its N-Series notebooks, namely the N10, N20, N50 and N80. In the following month, it received EU Flower certification for the same N-Series notebooks at an award ceremony held in Prague.^[31] In December 2008, Det Norske Veritas conferred the world’s first EuP (Energy-using Product) certification for portable notebooks on these machines.^[31]

Recycling campaign

In April 2008, Asus launched its "PC Recycling for a Brighter Future"^[33][34] program in collaboration with Intel and with Tsann Kuen Enterprise Co. This program collected more than 1,200 desktop computers, notebooks and CRT/LCD monitors, refurbished them and donated them to 122 elementary and junior high schools, five aboriginal communities and the Tzu Chi Stem Cell Center.

Pirated software and dissemination of confidential data

In September 2008, PC Pro discovered through a reader^[35] that Asus had shipped laptops that contained cracked and pirated software. Both physical machines and recovery CDs contained confidential documents from Microsoft and other organizations, internal Asus documents, and sensitive personal information including CVs.

At the time, an Asus spokesperson promised an investigation at "quite a high level", but declined to comment on how the files got on the machines and recovery media.^[36] It was demonstrated that an unattended installation of Windows Vista could accidentally copy material from a flash drive with a parameter in the "unattend.xml" file on the personal flash drive being used to script the installation.^[37][38]

See also

• List of companies of Taiwan
• ASUS Eee PC
• ASUS Media Bus
• Asus Routers
• ASUS Eee Keyboard
• Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS)
• Gigabyte Technology
• Micro-Star International (MSI)

References

External links

• Official website
• Techinstyle.tv - Official ASUS Technology Blog, News & Video Reviews
• Linux on ASUS Laptops (user experiences)
• Asus Wl 500 premium Open WRT Howto: WiFi router for the Huawei E220
• ASUS FTP in Taiwan - for the most up-to-date drivers. (Asus does not always update its subsidiary sites (such as the site in Germany) in a timely fashion, so check here)
• ASUS Forum Troubleshooting and Reviews
• ASUS launches ‘ASUS CEO Program’ in five pioneer universities
• Open firmware forum for ASUS Routers with oleg firmware
• Pegatron Official Website
• ASUS P565 Review: Fastest Mobile Phone in the World!
• ASUS N81Vp Gaming Notebook Review