Asus negotiates Microsoft to launch WP8 mobile phone

According to foreign media reports, a manager of Asustek said that the company is negotiating with Microsoft on the launch of a franchise transaction for Windows 8 handsets. Asustek will thus become another company that intends to differentiate this new operating system as a smartphone market. Asian computer maker with competitive weapon.

It is not unreasonable that PC makers have been trying hard to enter the mobile market. According to data from International Data Corporation (IDC), smartphone shipments increased by 45.1% last year while PC shipments fell by 3.2%.

Asustek, headquartered in Taipei, was founded in 1989. The company cooperated with Google last year to launch the Nexus 7, a tablet computer with a retail price of $199, which was welcomed by the market. However, analysts said that Asustek is still trying to develop into a global company, and the company has not yet established a high brand awareness in the United States.

Benson Lin, the vice president of ASUS’ mobile communications business, said in an interview recently that the company has proposed to Microsoft to manufacture Padfone (a smartphone embedded in a tablet) equipped with a Windows 8 system to expand the company’s just-initiated Smart phone business.

He said he believes that Padfone's idea of ​​combining mobile phones and tablet computers can be combined with the Windows 8 system; both parties are discussing the issue of licensing fees. The company did not set a specific schedule, but was interested in the production of a mobile phone equipped with a Windows system.

A spokesman for Microsoft in Taipei declined to comment on the company’s negotiations with Asustek.