Asus

ASUSTeK Computer Incorporated (Chinese: 華碩電腦股份有限公司; pinyin: Huáshuò Diànnaǒ Gǔfèn Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī, lit. Great Splendid Computer Corporation) is a multinational computer technology and consumer electronics product manufacturer headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan. Its product range includes motherboards, desktops, laptops, monitors, tablet PCs, servers and mobile phones. The company also produces components for other manufacturers, including Dell, Falcon Northwest, Hewlett-Packard and Apple Inc..

Sometimes identified by its brand name ASUS (English pronunciation: /ˈeɪsʉs/^[2]), 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.^[1]

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, Taiwan.^[5]

History

TH Tung, Ted Hsu, Wayne Hsieh, and MT Liao founded ASUS in 1989^[6] 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.^[7][8] 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.^[9]

In 2008, shipments from ASUS, Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS), Gigabyte Technology, and Micro-Star International (MSI) totaled 104.86 million devices. 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. As of 2009^[update], ASUS receives Intel engineering samples ahead of its competitors.^[10]

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.^[11] The company split into three distinct operational units: ASUS, Pegatron and the Unihan Corporation.^[12] The ASUS brand was applied solely to first-party branded computers. Pegatron handled OEM manufacturing of motherboards and components, and the Unihan Corporation focused on non-PC manufacturing such as cases and molding. In January 2008, Pegatron acquired the Unihan Corporation as a subsidiary from Asus.^[13]

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.^[14]

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."^[15]

Timeline

• September 2005: releases the first PhysX accelerator card.^[16]
• December 2005: enters the LCD TV market with the TLW32001 model, initially only available in the Taiwan market.^[17]
• January 2006: ASUS announces that it will cooperate with Lamborghini to develop its VX series.^[18]
• 9 March 2006: ASUS announced as one of the producers of the first Microsoft Origami models, together with Samsung and Founder Technology.^[19]
• 8 August 2006: ASUS announces a joint venture with Gigabyte Technology.^[20](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.^[21] 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.^[22]
• May 2008: Incompatibility of ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard with Windows XP SP3 first discovered
• 22 August 2008: Details of the N10 leaked online.^[23]
• December 2008: ASUS releases a beta BIOS update that potentially fixes the Windows XP SP3 incompatibility with the ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard.
• 1 June 2010: ASUS spins off Pegatron Corp.^[24]
• December 2010: ASUS has the world's thinnest notebook ASUS U36 with Intel processor voltage standard (not low voltage) Intel core i3 or i5 with a thickness of only 19 mm.^[25]
• October 2011: Asus designed UX/21E/31E ZENBOOK™, it uses a precision-crafted design measuring only 3mm at the front and 9mm at the rear. The form features razor thin edges
  • asus chairman Jonney Shih claimed these ultra thin (under 3 mm at its slimmest edge) laptops will last more than seven hours.^[26][27]

Manufacturing facilities and service centers

As of 2009^[update] ASUS has manufacturing facilities in Taiwan (Taipei, Lujhu, Nangan, Guishan), 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.^[28]

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, personal digital assistants (PDAs), computer monitors, laptops, servers, computer networking devices, mobile phones, computer cases, computer components, and computer cooling systems. It also has motion sensing technology in their ASUS Wavi bringing motion recognition to PC.

Essentio

As of December 2011 the Essentio line of desktop PCs consists of the CG Series designed for gaming, the CM series for entertainment and home use and the CS and CP slimline series.^[29]

Eee

Since its launch in October 2007, the Eee PC netbook has garnered numerous awards, including Forbes Asia’s Product of the Year,^[30] Stuff Magazine’s Gadget of the Year and Computer of the Year,^[31] 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 subsequently added several products to its Eee lineup, including:

• EeeBox PC, 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
• ASUS Eee Pad Transformer, is a tablet computer that runs on the Android 3.0 operating systems^[32]

On 6 March 2009, ASUS debuted its Eee Box B202, which PCMag saw as "the desktop equivalent of the ASUS EeePC", (the "ASUS Eee Box" computer line is later in 2010 renamed to "ASUS EeeBox PC").^[33]

With its price range between US$269 and US$299, this desktop competed directly with the Mac Mini.^[34]

GPS devices

The ASUS R700T GPS device includes TMC (Traffic Message Channel).^[35]

Republic of Gamers

Republic of Gamers is an Asus brand formed in 2006 "with the purpose of delivering the most innovative hardcore hardware for truly dedicated gamers."^[36]

Sound Cards

Asus started its line of sound cards by releasing the Xonar DX on February 28, 2008, a card that promised great audio quality. But this card's main attraction was its ability to emulate the EAX 5.0 effects through the Asus GX software while also supporting Open AL and DTS-connect.^[37] This offered an alternative to Creative's sound cards which were characterized with poor driver support under Windows Vista.^[38][39] Asus followed-up with the introduction of its Xonar D1 on the 27th of July 2008 which offered largely similar features to the Xonar DX but connected to the motherboard through the PCI interface instead of the PCI-E x1 connection on the Xonar DX.^[40] Asus then released the Xonar HDAV 1.3, which was the first solution enabling loss-less HD audio bit streaming to AV receivers.^[41] After that, Asus used the same audio processor to produce its Xonar DS sound card, which was released on the 13th of May, 2009. This card had 107db SNR rating which is slightly less than what the Xonar DX and the Xonar D1 had to offer but, it featured an upgradeable Operational Amplifier (OP-AMP) in addition to the common features of the Xonar line.^[42] Asus then targeted high-end audiophiles with the introduction of its Essence ST sound card on the 15th of May, 2009. This card featured 124db SNR rating and precision audio clock tuning.^[43] Three days later, Asus refreshed the HDAV family by releasing the HDAV 1.3 slim, a card targeted for HTPC users offering very similar functionality to HDAV 1.3 but in a smaller form.^[44] During Computex 2010, Asus introduced its Xonar Xense which was an audio bundle composed of the Xense sound card and a special edition of the Sennheiser PC350 headset.^[45][46] In August 2010, Asus released the Xonar DG sound card to target budget buyers. The card offered 5.1 surround sound support, 105db SNR rating, support for Dolby headphone and GX 2.5 support for emulating EAX 5.0 technology.^[47][48]

Corporate responsibility

Green ASUS

In 2000, ASUS officially launched Green ASUS,^[49] 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".^[50]

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 2006, ASUS became the first computer maker 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-made products in the USA.
• In 2005, ASUS launched Taiwan’s first GPMS (Green Product Management System) information-technology platform.

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.^[51]

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".^[52]

In October 2008, ASUS received 11 Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) Gold Awards for its products,^[53] 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.^[52] In December 2008, Det Norske Veritas conferred the world’s first EuP (Energy-using Product) certification for portable notebooks on these machines.^[52]

Recycling campaign

In April 2008, ASUS launched its "PC Recycling for a Brighter Future"^[54][55] 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 that ASUS had shipped laptops that contained cracked and pirated software.^[56] 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.^[57] 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.^[58][59]

See also

References

External links

• Official website