All style, no substance, yet
Asus has spiced up the run towards Computex somewhat with images placed across its Facebook place and Asus-run website techinstyle.tv of a forthcoming tablet design.
So far there's naught to look at but a few photographs, but thanks to a few details revealed in the pictures, and some interesting language from Asus, the possibilities are interesting. It's hard not to sit up and take notice when the company that brought us the EeePad Transformer asks: "phone or tablet?"
The subtle implication of that phrase, along with the 'bump' and 'clip' shown off in photograph seems to be that Asus has a mobile phone-based Transformer to accompany the tablet-based model. Considering the acclaim the Transfomer has received, it wouldn't be at all surprising to see Asus trying out the concept with other combinations than the laptop-tablet design of the Eee Pad Transformer.
The concept of a phone-companion device wouldn't put an 'Eee Phone Transformer' entirely separate from the late Palm Foleo, another device that was designed to be paired with a mobile phone; and one that proved unsuccessful commercially as customers weren't interested in carrying around a larger device unable to do anything more than their phone could.
Of course, four years down the line, after the advent of the iPad and Android, and with the wildly successful Eee-series under its belt, Asus is working in a much different marketplace, and is unlikely to make the same mistakes as Palm. As such, if there may now be a market for a tablet-hybrid; if that's what the teased device turns out to be.
Asus' Facebook page promises more details are coming on the 25th, 27th and 29th, prior to the main press conference on the 30th, so budding sleuths have until then to formulate their own theories as to what Asus has planned for us - we're welcoming theories in the comments.
