ASUS Chairman Jonney Shih says wearables are a “critical sector” for the company’s future

BY Stefan Constantinescu

Published 17 Jun 2013

ASUS, the company that made the first Nexus 7, and who will probably make the next Nexus 7, and who has no trouble copying Samsung’s product names, says that wearables are going to be the next big thing for the company according to Focus Taiwan. Jonney Shih, the company’s chairman, doesn’t go into too many specifics, whether they’re thinking of making a watch or a Google Glass type product, but he does admit that ASUS has been “running many simulation tests in our labs.”

Are wearables a fad or something more? That’s hard to say since the market is so new and so hacker oriented right now. Pebble might have started people’s fascination with wearable computers, but Pebble watches haven’t exactly been selling by the truck load. The same can be said about Google Glass, which isn’t even a product yet, it’s just a prototype for developers to play with in their spare time.

I have no doubt that we’ll hear more about wearables over time. Depending on who you believe, Apple is already at work on a watch. And so is Samsung. And so is LG. And so is just about every other company. So for ASUS to say they’re interested in wearable isn’t very exciting in it of itself.

Let’s see what they have to show off.