Asus has recently released their quarterly results for the other side of Asus. This is the part of the company that makes and sells notebooks, netbooks, the EEE Pad, PC and Slate. It is also a part of the company that we expect to turn into its own fully fledged market with the potential for direct sales in the future. The numbers look pretty impressive so far with gains across the board.For last quarter Asustek earned around $171 Million USD Net Income this was up from the previous year where they made about $117 million. That is not a bad jump in Net and revenue also had a nice increase with number of about $3.1 Billion USD. These numbers are due in large part to the popularity of Asus’ mobile products. The EEE Pad Transformer is one of the top selling Android based tablets while other items like their notebook and netbook lines are also good sellers.
But there is a slight problem; one that many are not seeing at the analyst level. This is a problem with availability. We have been following Asus’ rise in popularity for a while (ever since we found out about the EEE Pad product line) and have noticed a very wide gap between launch and market availability. This appears to have consumers frustrated with Asus and in some cases we have seen where they move to a different product.
This was highlighted very recently when the Padfone was announced (Officially). This product was first shown off at CES 2011 and since then we have heard all about how great it is. Sites like CNET, Engadget and other large sites have even gotten to tinker with it. Still they are not in the channel. I know of several people that were looking to get one, but have moved on because it is still not available at any carriers. This makes it a non-product to many and reduces confidence in Asus’ ability to design, manufacture and make available products for the market.
The same things can be said (although to a much lesser degree) about items like the Transformer Prime. We saw the launch, read the reviews (again only at larger sites that send very little time on actually using the product) and then we had to wait to buy one. To the consumer (who has is not only fickle but has a short memory) this type of pattern means they buy something else instead of waiting. If you do not believe it, just ask nVidia about the sales they lost due to the delay of Fermi and then later Kepler.
In the end, Asus has the talent and manufacturing ability to be a serious contender in this space. What they have to do now is shorten the time between launch and release to market. There are people that want their products, now they need to consistently get them to these people.
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