As highlighted in the Display Daily article, Asustek, Gigabyte Re-structuring”, Asustek is looking to get out of the tablet business by re-allocating R&D and sales staff to other business areas according to Digitimes in Taiwan.
The latest announcement is that Asustek is about reducing the number of tablet models it develops and will focus on shipments to fewer overseas markets, The company is also transferring some of its 1,000 or so employees working on tablets, to its VR, AR and smartphone business units.
According to CEO Jerry Shen, the company started the reduction in tablet development in mid-2016 and expects the changes to finish in mid-2017.
Asustek’s global tablet shipments fell each year from 12.1 million in 2013 to 3.3 million last year.
Going forward, Asustek will focus on mid-range and high-end tablets for sale at above NT$10,000 ($323) in 2017. Shen believes that in this way, the tablet business will be in profit beginning the third quarter of 2017.
