As a geek who has been around for a long time, I have used Asus products going back to motherboards. They are always top notch products. Recently I had an Asus Transformer tablet and enjoyed that as well.

Now, AllThingsD reports that Asus has announced they are entering the smartphone market and this will be their biggest challenge yet. You don’t need to know tech to be aware that currently, for the most part, the smartphone war is 2 man battle between Apple and Samsung.

Then again, this wasn’t the case just a few years ago and again, you don’t need to be a tech to know that in a few years anything is possible.

Asus Chairman Jonney Shih said his company has been taking its time, building relationships with the carriers and retailers that will be necessary for the company to succeed.

A couple of other quotes show they are well aware, and brutally honest, about the challenge ahead:

“For the phone, frankly speaking, we are still the latecomers.”

“We are making progress.”

Shih said the company is already hard at work, but that a 2013 release may not be in the cards.
“I think next year is more reasonable,” Shih said.