There are some characters in the technology space you can’t help but grow fond of, and the ever-quotable Asus chairman, Jonney Shih, is certainly one of them.
Speaking to Silicon, Shih let out his feelings on tablets, smartbooks and netbooks – an area he is well qualified for, having overseen what was arguably the first mainstream netbook: the ‘Eee PC 701′.
On Tablets: “Content is still not attractive enough today to the customer,” he explained. “We have those kind of devices in our labs, but we are watching to see when this is enabled.” Despite this, Shih believes online stores of books, music, videos and games could open up the sector – which is likely something Apple will target with its much anticipated iTablet/iSlate.
On Smartbooks: Shih maintains the absence of Windows will alienate some mainstream consumers, but sees Chrome OS as potentially the platform to help drag smartbooks into the mainstream during 2011. He does warn, however, that “When people talk about cloud computing, unfortunately it’s still not there yet, [but] as time goes on, you will see more advantage of being always connected.”
On Netbooks: they will be absorbed into the laptop space and within five years time, portable computers will evolve into wearable, bendable touch-sensitive screens with integrated computers. Naturally enough, Asus is already working on such a concept, which it dubs ‘WaveFace’ (see concept video below). “I don’t believe that the PC will keep evolving from simply [having] four core processors, to eight core to 16 core,” he added. “I am tired of only thinking about the regular, dull PC roadmap.”
Shih does talk a lot of sense and his company also has a fine track record of innovation – even if it somewhat diluted its own Eee PC brand. That said, I have my doubts whether wearable computers will arrive quite so quickly, so don’t expect us to become ‘The Wearable, Bendable, Touchscreen Computer Blog’ just yet…
Gordon
