Asus may launch its first wearable device in this year’s third quarter in line with its growing reliance on devices like smartphones and tablets to drive sales.
The company’s CEO Jerry Shen indicated that a wearable product was in the cards on Wednesday during an earnings call. “In the third quarter, we will probably launch a product,” he said speaking about Asus’ wearables strategy. “This year we are only testing the waters a little bit,” Shen added.
The Taiwanese PC maker is among the manufacturers Google is working with on Android-powered watches, the U.S. search giant said in a blog post in March.
But outside its partnership with Google, Asus is looking beyond smartwatches, wristbands and glasses, and eyeing other opportunities in smaller electronic devices, he added.
“In partnering with Google, we will launch some very good products, but we also have more ambitious goals,” Shen said.
Asus is already the maker of Google’s Nexus 7 tablet, a product that’s helped propel the Taiwanese PC maker’s sales in mobile devices. Increasingly, the company is breaking out of the PC space, and coming out with tablets, smartphones, and even hybrid devices with the functions of both.
Later this year, the company’s new Fonepad devices will help drive its tablet shipments, Shen said. The Fonepad series are tablets that are 6 to 7-inches in size and pack phone calling functions.
The growth means that eventually the company’s mobile devices revenue will surpass that of its PC business by 2017, he added.
“This doesn’t mean that our PC business will decrease. We are going to sustain revenue growth,” Shen said.
Asus still primarily makes most of its revenue from its PCs. In this year’s first quarter, 62 percent of the company’s revenue came from notebooks, whereas tablets only made up 12 percent.