Asus is now the No.3 tablet maker in the world, more than half of its tablet shipments are backed by the power of Google Nexus, and Google is likely to move the Nexus lineup to LG next year. While Asus is trying to keep the business, whether it can do so or not is of limited importance, in our view. If Google can move this business freely among different OEMs, then it is actually an ODM business rather than an own-brand business for Asus. The more Asus intends to keep the business, the more they need to suffer on margins (again, that’s exactly what ODM biz is all about).
Asus’ own-brand tablet run rate, based on our estimate, is only around 1M per quarter, meaning that Asus’ own-brand tablet is only around the size of that of Acer. Asus was one of the earliest and most aggressive Android tablet makers in the market. However, after two-and-a-half years, its
