HTC 宏達國際電子股份有限公司
Industry	Telecommunications equipment
Founded	1997
Headquarters	Xindian District, New Taipei City, Taiwan
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Peter Chou, Vice Chairman Cher Wang, Chairwoman Fred Liu, COO
Products	Smartphones, Tablets
Subsidiaries	S3 Graphics Dashwire Zoodles Saffron Digital
Website	www.htc.com www.htc.com/au www.htc.com/sea/

HTC Corporation (Chinese: 宏達國際電子股份有限公司; pinyin: Hóngdá Guójì Diànzǐ Gǔfèn Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī), formerly High-Tech Computer Corporation, is a Taiwanese manufacturer of smartphones and tablets headquartered in New Taipei City, Taiwan. Founded in 1997, HTC began as an original design manufacturer and original equipment manufacturer, designing and manufacturing devices such as mobile phones, touchscreen phones, and PDAs based on Windows Mobile OS and Brew MP to market to mobile network operators who were willing to pay a contract manufacturer for customized products. After initially making smartphones based mostly on Windows Mobile, HTC expanded its focus in 2009 to devices based on the Android, and in 2010 to Windows Phone. As of 2011, HTC primarily releases and markets its smartphones under the HTC brand, ranking as the 98th top brand on Interbrand’s Best Global Brands 2011 report. A September 2013 media report stated that HTC's share of the global smartphone market is less than 3 percent and its stock price has fallen by 90 percent since 2011.

HTC is a founding member of the Open Handset Alliance, a group of handset manufacturers and mobile network operators dedicated to the development of the Android mobile device platform. The HTC Dream, marketed by T-Mobile in many countries as the T-Mobile G1 or Era G1, was the first phone on the market to use the Android mobile device platform.

History

Cher Wang (王雪紅), H. T. Cho (卓火土), and Peter Chou (周永明) founded HTC in 1997.[9] Initially a manufacturer of notebook computers, HTC began designing some of the world's first touch and wireless hand-held devices in 1998. The company is credited with creating the first Android smartphone, the first Microsoft-powered smartphone (2002) and the first Microsoft 3G phone (2005). Their first major product, one of the world's first touch-screen smartphones, appeared in 2000. As an ODM for HP and Palm, HTC built the HP iPAQ and the Palm Treo 650.

In 2007 HTC acquired the mobile-device company Dopod International.

In October 2009, HTC launched the brand tagline "quietly brilliant", and the YOU campaign, HTC's first global advertising campaign.

In June 2010, the company launched the HTC Evo 4G, the first 4G-capable phone in the United States. In July 2010, HTC announced it would begin selling smartphones in China under its own brand name in a partnership with China Mobile. In 2010 HTC sold over 24.6 million handsets, up 111% over 2009.

At the Mobile World Congress on 16 February 2011, the GSM Association named HTC the "Device Manufacturer of the Year" for 2011. In April 2011, the company's market value surpassed that of Nokia, making HTC the third-largest smartphone-maker in the world behind Apple and Samsung.

On 6 July 2011, it was announced that HTC would buy VIA Technologies' stake in S3 Graphics, thus becoming the majority owner of S3. On 6 August 2011, HTC acquired Dashwire for $18.5M. In August 2011, HTC confirmed a plan for a strategic partnership with Beats Electronics involving acquiring 51 percent of Beats' shares.

On 27 September 2013, HTC announced that it sold back all remaining shares of Beats to Beats Electronics. The deal is expected to be closed in Q4 of 2013. The 2011 Best Global Brands rankings released by Interbrand, listed HTC at #98 and valued it at $3.6 billion. Based on researcher Canalys, in Q3 2011 HTC Corporation became the largest smartphone vendor in the U.S. with 24 percent market share, ahead of Samsung's 21 percent, Apple Inc.'s 20 percent and BlackBerry's 9 percent. HTC Corporation made different models for each operator.

During early 2012, HTC lost much of this U.S. market share due to increased competition from Samsung and Apple Inc. According to analyst firm comScore, HTC only accounted for 9.3% of the United States smartphone market as of February 2013.[27] In light of the company's decrease in prominence, Chief Executive Peter Chou had informed executives that he would step down if the company's newest flagship phone, the 2013 HTC One, had failed to generate impressive sales results. HTC's first quarter results for 2013 showed its year-over-year profit drop by 98.1%, making it the smallest-ever profit for the company—the delay of the launch of the HTC One was cited as one of the factors. In June 2012, HTC moved its headquarters from Taoyuan City to Xindian District, New Taipei City.

In August 2013, HTC debuted a new "Here's To Change" global marketing campaign featuring actor Robert Downey, Jr., who signed a two-year contract to be HTC's new "Instigator of Change." On 15 August, HTC began airing the new marketing campaign on YouTube, prior to the campaign's appearance in television and cinema advertising schedules.

On September 27, 2013, HTC announced the sale of its entire stake (24.84 percent) in Beats Electronics. The company will close the deal in the fourth quarter of 2013 and expects a US$85 million pretax profit.

The 2013 HTC One was released in mid-2013 and, subsequently won various industry awards in the best smartphone and best design categories, but global sales of the HTC One were lower than those for Samsung's Galaxy S4 flagship handset and HTC recorded its first ever quarterly loss in early October 2013: a deficit of just under NT$3 billion (about US$100m, £62m). Marketing problems were identified by HTC as the primary reason for its comparative performance, a factor that had been previously cited by the company.

Following the release of the HTC One, two variants were released to form a trio for the 2013 HTC One lineup. A smaller variant named the HTC One Mini was released in August 2013, and a larger variant named the HTC One Max was released in October 2013. Similar in design and features to the HTC One, the upgraded aspects of the One Max include a display measuring 5.9 inches (15 cm), a fingerprint sensor and a removable back cover for expandable memory. The product was released into the European and Asian retail environment in October 2013, followed by a US launch in early November 2013.

In March 2014, HTC released the 2014 HTC One or "M8", the next version of the HTC One flagship, at press conferences in London and New York City. In a change from previous launches, the HTC One was made available for purchase on the company website and North American mobile carrier websites on the same day a few hours after the launch.

In April 2014, the smartphone company reported sales climbing 12.7 percent to NT$22.1 billion, the company's fastest growth since October 2011.

Legal

In March 2010, Apple Inc. filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission claiming infringement of 20 of its patents covering aspects of the iPhone user interface and hardware. HTC disagreed with Apple's actions and reiterated its commitment to creating innovative smartphones. HTC also filed a complaint against Apple for infringing on 5 of its patents and sought to ban the import of Apple products into the US from manufacturing facilities in Asia. Apple expanded its original complaint by adding two more patents.

On November 10, 2012, Apple and HTC reached a 10-year license-agreement covering current and future patents held by the two companies. The terms of the agreement remain confidential.

In February 2013, HTC settled with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission concerning lax security on more than 18 million smartphones and tablets it had shipped to customers and agreed to security patches.

Corporate information

HTC's chairwoman is Cher Wang who is the daughter of the late Wang Yung-ching, founder of the plastics and petrochemicals conglomerate Formosa Plastics Group, and one of Taiwan's wealthiest people. Peter Chou serves as President and CEO, and HT Cho as Director of the Board and Chairman of HTC Foundation. HTC's CFO is Hui-Ming Cheng. In addition to being chair of HTC, Cher Wang is also acting chair of VIA Technologies. HTC's main divisions, including the IA (Information Appliance) engineering division and the WM (Wireless Mobile) engineering division, are ISO 9001/ISO 14001-qualified facilities.

The company's growth has accelerated dramatically since being chosen by Microsoft as a hardware platform development partner for the Windows Mobile operating system (based on Windows CE). HTC also works with Google to build mobile phones running Google's Android mobile OS such as the Nexus One. HTC's sales revenue totalled $2.2 billion for 2005, a 102% increase from the prior year. It was listed as the fastest-growing tech company in BusinessWeek's Info Tech 100.

HTC has invested strongly in research and development, which accounts for a quarter of its employees. The company's North American headquarters are located in Bellevue, Washington. HTC runs a software design office in Seattle (near its North American headquarters) where it designs its own interface for its phones. In 2011, HTC also opened a research and development office in Durham, North Carolina, a location the company chose over Seattle and Atlanta, to focus on multiple areas of wireless technology.

Innovations

HTC One (2013)

On February 17, 2010, Fast Company ranked HTC as the 31st most innovative company in the world. Bloomberg reports that HTC is considering its own mobile operating system to compete with Apple's iOS, Google's Android, and Microsoft's Windows Phone. On May 27, 2011, in response to customer feedback, HTC announced that they will no longer lock the bootloaders on their Android based phones. Since then, customers are now able to unlock the bootloaders of most of HTC's Android product line through the use of HTC's Developer website, HTCDev.com.

On January 14, 2013, HTC launched its smartphones in Burma, which will come with the world’s most advanced Burmese language on-screen keyboard.

On September 2014, Google has selected HTC Corp to make its upcoming 9-inch Nexus tablet.

Sports sponsorship

Cycling

HTC sponsored the HTC-Highroad professional cycling team, the most successful team in professional cycling from 2009 to 2011.

Association football

In 2012, HTC became the official mobile phone supplier and sponsor of the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The contract will last for three years and makes HTC one of the main sponsors of the two competitions. HTC also became the shirt sponsors for Indian Super League's Guwahati's franchise NorthEast United FC on October 12, 2014.

Last updated on 12 October 2014 at 10:31.

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Acer Inc.
Industry	Computer hardware Electronics
Predecessors	Multitech International
Founded	1976 (as Multitech)
Founders	Stan Shih et al.
Headquarters	Xizhi, New Taipei, Taiwan
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Stan Shih (Chairman and President)
Products	Desktops, laptops, netbooks, servers, smartphones, tablet computers, storage, handhelds, monitors, televisions, video projectors, e-business
Subsidiaries	Acer America Corporation Acer Computer Australia Acer India Gateway, Inc. Packard Bell eMachines Escom
Website	Acer.com

Acer Building in Oriental Science Park

Acer Inc. (/ˈeɪsər/; Chinese: 宏碁股份有限公司; pinyin: Hóngqi Gǔfèn Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī, lit. Hongji Corporation) (stylized as acer, or formerly as acer) is a Taiwanese multinational hardware and electronics corporation headquartered in Xizhi, New Taipei City, Taiwan. Acer's products include desktop and laptop PCs, tablet computers, servers, storage devices, displays, smartphones and peripherals. It also provides e-business services to businesses, governments and consumers. In 2013 Acer was the fourth largest personal computer vendor in the world.

In the early 2000s, Acer implemented a new business model, shifting from a manufacturer to a designer, marketer and distributor of products, while performing production processes via contract manufacturers.

In addition to its core business, Acer also owns the largest franchised computer retail chain in Taipei, Taiwan.

Acer's current and former slogan(s)/tagline(s) is "Explore beyond limits" and were "Empowering people" and "Empowering technology", respectively.

History

Acer was founded by Stan Shih (施振榮), his wife Carolyn Yeh, and a group of five others as Multitech in 1976, headquartered in Hsinchu City, Taiwan.

It began with eleven employees and US$25,000 in capital. Initially, it was primarily a distributor of electronic parts and a consultant in the use of microprocessor technologies. It produced the Micro-Professor MPF-I training kit, then two Apple II clones; the Microprofessor II and III before joining the emerging IBM PC compatible market, and becoming a significant PC manufacturer. The company was renamed Acer in 1987.

1990s: creating multinational brand

Considering two consecutive quarters of net losses in Q2+Q3 2011 and realization they are selling too many products; 101 individual notebook, netbook and chromebook SKUs in the United States alone, Acer will cut product lines by two thirds beginning in 2012.

Growth and netbook raise

Acer increased worldwide sales while simultaneously reducing its labor force by identifying and using marketing strategies that best utilized their existing distribution channels. By 2005, Acer employed a scant 7,800 people worldwide. Revenues rose from US$4.9 billion in 2003 to US$11.31 billion in 2006.

Acer's North American market share has slipped over the past few years, while in contrast, the company's European market share has risen.

In the mid-2000s years, consumer notebooks have been almost the sole growth drivers for the PC industry, and Acer's exceptionally low overheads and dedication to the channel had made it one of the main beneficiaries of this trend. Acer grew quickly in Europe in part by embracing the use of more traditional distribution channels targeting retail consumers when some rivals were pursuing online sales and business customers. In 2007 Acer bought Gateway in the USA and Packard Bell in Europe and became the Number 3 world provider of computers and number 2 for notebooks, and achieved significant improvement in profitability. Acer has been striving to become the world`s largest PC vendor, in the belief that the goal can help it achieve economy of scale and garner higher margin. But such a reliance on the high-volume, low-value PC market made Acer exposed when buying habits changed.

2013 re-organization

On November 2013 Chairman and CEO J.T. Wang, and President Jim Wong, both resigned due to the company's bad financial performance. Wang had already been reportedly due to leave Acer at year's end to be replaced by Wong. Acer founder Stan Shih has taken over as board chairman and interim president as the company searches for a new candidate to assume the role of presidency. The position of CEO will be eliminated and its responsibilities transferred to the chairman or president, according to Acer in order to improve decision-making efficiency. On December 23 Acer named Jason Chen, vice president of worldwide sales and marketing at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, as its new president and CEO, effective Jan. 1. Entertainment industry executive and former actress Nancy Hu was named CFO and Spokesperson as of May 1, 2014.

Acquisitions

In 1988, Acer acquired Counterpoint Computers

In 1990, Acer acquired Altos Computer Corporation

On 27 August 2007, Acer announced plans to acquire its US-based rival Gateway, Inc. for US$710 million. Acer's chairman, Jen-tang Wang, stated that the acquisition "completes Acer's global footprint, by strengthening our United States presence". Included in this acquisition was the eMachines brand.

In January 2008, Acer announced that it had acquired a controlling interest of 75% of Packard Bell.

In March 2008, Acer acquired: E-TEN. In 2009, Acer acquired 29.9% of Olidata.

In August 2010, Acer and Founder Technology signed a memorandum of mutual understanding to strengthen their long term PC business cooperation.

In July 2011, Acer Inc. bought iGware Inc. for $320 million to try to enter the potentially lucrative cloud market. iGware creates cloud software and infrastructure tools for devices.

Figures

29 April 2010

• Acer announced revenue in Q1 rose 36 percent year-on-year to NT$162.1 billion (US$5.2 billion) and its net profit increased 63 percent to 3.29 billion New Taiwan dollars (US$104.7 million); 27 percent of revenue comes from the U.S.
• Gianfranco Lanci announced that Acer will launch 4 new smartphones by Q3 2010, and a series of "Internet Devices" by the end of May which will run version 4.0 of its Shell user interface.
• According to Gartner and IDC, Acer now ranks No. 1 worldwide in notebook shipments.

Operations

North America

Acer America Headquarters in San Jose

Acer America Corporation, headquartered in San Jose, California, is a member of the Acer Group. Acer's R&D, engineering, manufacturing and marketing operations in the United States and Canada are handled by Acer America. The U.S. headquarters was opened with a staff of three in 1985, as Multitech Electronics USA, in Mountain View, California. In 1986, the U.S. headquarters was moved to San Jose, California. In September 1990, Acer acquired Altos Computer Systems, one of the top manufacturers of multi-user and networked Unix computer systems for commercial markets. In February 1997, Acer acquired Texas Instruments Mobile Computing business, including the award-winning TravelMate and Extensa notebook lines, making Acer the fourth-leading notebook manufacturer in the United States. Acer America's Canadian office, in Mississauga, Ontario, handles repair of Acer, Gateway, and E-Machine Notebooks and Desktop PCs for Eastern Canada. Acer has several facilities in Temple, Texas including a repair facility, a parts warehouse, and a call center. In the words of its Chief Executive, J.T. Wang, “Building a brand is very different in the US. The investment at the initial stage has to be very big—otherwise there is almost no impact”.

Australia

The Australian subsidiary of Acer is Acer Computer Australia (ACA). The subsidiary was established in 1990, and is currently Australia's third largest personal computer vendor, behind Hewlett-Packard Australia and Dell Australia and New Zealand. Acer Computer Australia has Australia's highest overall market share in notebook PC and tablet PC sales. The company is also Australia's leading PC vendor in government and education markets. Acer Computer Australia has 480 employees as of 2006.

India

Acer's subsidiary in India is Acer India (Pvt) Limited, and was incorporated as a wholly owned subsidiary of Acer Computer International, Ltd. in 1999. It is a notable vendor in key segments such as education, desktop computers and low profile notebooks for education. The headquarters are in Bangalore, India.

Europe

From the late 90's to mid-2000's Acer had computer factories in Europe, too. The business area was the whole EMEA. In the Netherlands under the name of Acer IMS bv there were two factories: Acer laptop factory in Den Bosch and Acer and IBM desktop factory in Tilburg. Acer had also facilities in Germany under the name of IMS in Ahrensburg and Hamburg.

The factory in Tilburg produced also - in limited quantities - various Acer server models and even TV set top boxes. In their prime the monthly production could reach over 40.000 desktop PCs per month, well rivaling the main Acer factories in USA and Taiwan.

In year 2000 Acer extracted its computer production under the branch of Wistron. Also the Dutch branch Acer IMS bv and the German brand IMS were merged with this. Despite the successful production model developed in the Dutch factories both plants were relocated in 2002. The laptop factory was relocated to mainland China and the desktop factory (after ending the IBM desktop production) was relocated Hungary. Soon the Hungarian factory was also moved to mainland China. Acer is a popular brand in Bulgaria. as well.

Linux

Acer has shipped some of their notebooks and more recently netbooks, with various Linux operating system distributions including Ubuntu, Linpus, Android (in a dual boot environment with Windows XP), and Google Chrome OS. They have also launched a line of smartphones and tablets with Android.

Logo

Acer Inc. logo history
	1987–2001
	2001–2011
	2011–present

From 1987 until 2001 the company used red-blue logo with diamond in the right side and the A and R were capital letters. On March 8, 2001 a new logo was introduced, in which the Acer "diamond" was abandoned. It was created by Landor Associates. The new logo came out following spun-off of Acer's contract manufacturing business to focus on its brand business. The latest logo that was introduced in 2011 uses a different typeface with more rounded corners and the e doesn't stand out from the other letters anymore. The new logo also uses a different shade of green, which has been dubbed "Acer Green".

Products

Business desktops

• Acer Veriton series

Business notebooks

• Acer TravelMate series
• Acer Extensa series

Chromebooks

• Acer AC700
• Acer C710
• Acer C720 (2GB)
• Acer C720 (4GB)
• Acer C720P

Computer displays

1. G Series
2. P Series
3. H Series
4. X Series
5. B Series
6. V Series
7. S Series
8. T Series
9. D Series
10. MO Monitor TV series

Consumer desktops

• Acer Aspire Desktop series
• Acer Aspire Predator series

Consumer notebooks

• Acer Aspire Notebook series
• Acer Aspire Timeline series
• Acer Ferrari products series
• Acer Iconia

Home network solutions

• Acer Clear.fi

Mobile phones

• Acer CloudMobile
• Acer Allegro (WP8)
• Acer Tempo series
• Acer Liquid series
• Acer beTouch
• Acer neoTouch
• Acer Stream
• Acer E110
• Acer DX
• Acer F
• Acer Iconia
• Acer T
• Acer X960

Netbooks

• Acer Aspire One series
• Ferrari One

Nettops

• Acer Aspire Revo

Projectors

• Professional series
• Home series
• Travel series
• Value series

Servers and storage

• Acer server F1 series
• Tower series: T110 F1, T115 F1, T150 F1, T310 F1, T350 F1;
• Rack series: R160 F1, R180 F1, R320 F1, R360 F1, R380 F1, R385 F1, R585 F1;
• Blade series: B2x285 F1, B2x280 F1, B460 F1;
• Gemini series: B1170 F1, B2170 F1, B2170t, B2175 F1
• Home Server Series: H340, H341, H342, Altos Easystore M2
• Acer storage series
• N500 F1, N1600 F1, HNAS3080, GS2040, AMS2100, AMS2300

Tablets

• Acer Iconia Tab series
• Acer Aspire Switch 10. This is a 2-in-1 tablet with detachable keyboard. It was launched in 2014 and runs Windows 8.Acer Aspire Switch 10

Televsion

• AT Series

Other (discontinued devices)

• Digital cameras
• Personal digital assistants
• Automotive navigation systems
• Acer PICA

Brands

• Acer
• eMachines
• Gateway
• Packard Bell

Environmental record

In 2005, Acer published its first environmental report, for which the company used the GRI guidelines. All of Acer’s tier-one suppliers have acquired ISO 14001 certification.

In November 2011, Acer was ranked 12th place out of 15 in Greenpeace’s re-launched Guide to Greener Electronics, with the a score of 2.9 points out of 10. The Guide ranks electronics makers according to their policies and practices to reduce their impact on the climate, produce greener products, and make their operations more sustainable.

Greenpeace criticized the company for not setting out targets to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as intended in 2010 and for not providing external verification for the GHG emissions it reports for its operations and business travel. It also scored badly on the Products criteria receiving no points on product life cycle while Greenpeace noted that a higher percentage of its products need to meet or exceed Energy Star standards in order for it to score more points.

It received some praise for launching new products which are free from polyvinyl chloride plastic (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and the company informed Greenpeace that the majority of its products will be PVC/BFR free in the near future. Acer also scored well on chemical management for lobbying for restrictions on organo-halogens and was commended for reporting on GHG emissions from its first tier suppliers and investigating its second tier.

In its 2012 report on progress relating to conflict minerals, the Enough Project rated Acer the seventh highest of 24 consumer electronics companies.

Sponsorships

Acer sponsored the BAR-Honda Formula One racing team in the year 2000. In 2001, Acer provided sponsorship to the Prost Grand Prix Formula One team, and the team's Ferrari engines were badged as Acers.

Acer sponsored the Ferrari Formula 1 team from 2003 up to 2012 (Official Supplier since 2006) and its Top Sponsor of FC Internazionale – Milano (Inter Milan) Football Club. From 2007 to 2009 Acer has been Official Supplier of FC Barcelona. On 19 March 2007, Acer announced it will sponsor the Factory Fiat Yamaha Team for the 2007 MotoGP World Championship season. From 2009, Packard Bell (that it is part of Acer Group) is the sponsor of Yamaha Factory Racing Team.

Since 2010 Acer support Army United F.C. the Thai football team of the Thai Premier League.

Acer has been Worldwide TOP Partners for both the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games and Singapore Youth Olympic Games. Acer was TOP Partner of the London 2012 Summer Olympics.

On July 19, 2011, Acer formed a professional gaming team. The company currently supports from around the world who represent Acer in games such as StarCraft 2, TrackMania, and FIFA Soccer.

Last updated on 11 October 2014 at 18:22.

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ASUSTeK Computer Inc. 華碩電腦股份有限公司
Industry	Computer hardware Electronics
Founded	2 April 1989
Founders	T.H. Tung Ted Hsu Wayne Hsieh M.T. Liao
Headquarters	Beitou District, Taipei, Taiwan Fremont, California, U.S.
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Jonney Shih (Chairman)
Products	Desktops, laptops, netbooks, LCDs, mobile phones, networking equipment, monitors, motherboards, graphics cards, optical storage, multimedia products, servers, workstations, tablet PCs and video cards
Website	www.ASUS.com

ASUSTeK Computer Inc. (simplified Chinese: 华硕电脑股份有限公司; traditional Chinese: 華碩電腦股份有限公司; pinyin: Huáshuò Diànnǎo Gǔfèn Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī), usually referred to as ASUS (/ˈeɪsuːs/) and in Chinese Huáshuò (simplified Chinese: 华硕; traditional Chinese: 華碩), and trading under that name, is a Taiwanese multinational computer hardware and electronics company headquartered in Beitou District, Taipei, Taiwan. Its products include desktops, laptops, netbooks, LED/LCD panels, mobile phones, networking equipment, monitors, motherboards, graphics cards, optical storage, multimedia products,servers, workstations, and tablet PCs. The company's slogan/tagline was "Inspiring Innovation. Persistent Perfection." and is currently "In Search of Incredible."

ASUS is the world's fifth-largest PC vendor by 2013 unit sales (after Lenovo, HP, Dell and Acer). ASUS appears in BusinessWeek’s "InfoTech 100" and "Asia’s Top 10 IT Companies" rankings, and it ranked first in the IT Hardware category of the 2008 Taiwan Top 10 Global Brands survey with a total brand value of $1.3 billion.

ASUS has a primary listing on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and a secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange.

Name

According to the company website, the name ASUS originates from Pegasus, the winged horse of Greek mythology. Only the last four letters of the word were used in order to give the name a high position in alphabetical listings.

History

ASUS was founded in Taipei in 1989 by T.H. Tung, Ted Hsu, Wayne Hsieh and M.T. Liao, all four having previously worked at Acer as computer engineers. At this time, Taiwan had yet to establish a leading position in the computer-hardware business. Intel Corporation would supply any new processors to more established companies like IBM first, and Taiwanese companies would have to wait for approximately six months after IBM received their engineering prototypes. According to the legend, the company created a prototype for a motherboard using an Intel 486, but it had to do so without access to the actual processor. When ASUS approached Intel to request a processor to test it, Intel itself had a problem with their motherboard. ASUS solved Intel's problem and it turned out that ASUS' own motherboard worked correctly without the need for further modification. Since then, ASUS was receiving Intel engineering samples ahead of its competitors.

In September 2005 ASUS released the first PhysX accelerator card. In December 2005 ASUS entered the LCD TV market with the TLW32001 model. In January 2006 ASUS announced that it would cooperate with Lamborghini to develop the VX series.

On 9 March 2006 ASUS was confirmed as one of the manufacturers of the first Microsoft Origami models, together with Samsung and Founder Technology. On 8 August 2006 ASUS announced a joint venture with Gigabyte Technology.[17] On 5 June 2007 ASUS announced the launch of the Eee PC at COMPUTEX Taipei. On 9 September 2007 ASUS indicated support for Blu-ray, announcing the release of a BD-ROM/DVD writer PC drive, BC-1205PT. ASUS subsequently released several Blu-ray based notebooks.

In January 2008, ASUS began a major restructuring of its operations, splitting into three independent companies: ASUS (focused on applied first-party branded computers and electronics); Pegatron (focused on OEM manufacturing of motherboards and components); and Unihan Corporation (focused on non-PC manufacturing such as cases and molding). In the process of the restructuring, a highly criticized pension-plan restructuring effectively zeroed out the existing pension balances. The company paid out all contributions previously made by employees.

On 9 December 2008, the Open Handset Alliance announced that ASUS had become one of 14 new members of the organization. These "new members will either deploy compatible Android devices, contribute significant code to the Android Open Source Project, or support the ecosystem through products and services that will accelerate the availability of Android-based devices."

On 1 June 2010, ASUS spun off Pegatron Corp. In October 2010, ASUS and Garmin announced that they would be ending their smartphone partnership as a result of Garmin deciding to exit the product category. The two companies had produced six Garmin-ASUS branded smartphones over the prior two years.

In December 2010, ASUS launched the world's thinnest notebook, the ASUS U36, with Intel processor voltage standard (not low voltage) Intel core i3 or i5 with a thickness of only 19 mm.

In January 2013, ASUS officially ended production of its Eee PC series due to declining sales caused by consumers increasingly switching to tablets and Ultrabooks.

Operations

An ASUS shop in Hong Kong

ASUS has its headquarters in Beitou District, Taipei, Taiwan.

As of 2009 ASUS had manufacturing facilities in Taiwan (Taipei, Luzhu, Nangan, Guishan), mainland China (Suzhou, Chongqing), Mexico (Ciudad Juárez) and the Czech Republic (Ostrava). The ASUS Hi-Tech Park, located in Suzhou, covers 540,000 m² (5,800,000 sq ft).

ASUS operates around 50 service sites across 32 countries and has over 400 service partners worldwide.

Products

ASUS's products include laptops, tablet computers, desktop computers, mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), servers, computer monitors,motherboards, graphics cards, sound cards, optical disc drives, computer networking devices, computer cases, computer components and computer cooling systems.

An Asus ATX chassis TA-M21	An Asus motherboard	An Asus Fonepad
An Asus NVIDIA GeForce 210 silent graphics card	Asus Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti, a PCI Express 3.0 x16 graphics card	An Asus x21 ultrabook

Eee Line

Since its launch in October 2007, the Eee PC netbook has garnered numerous awards, including Forbes Asia’s Product of the Year,^[29] Stuff Magazine’s Gadget of the Year and Computer of the Year,^[30]NBC.com’s Best Travel Gadget, Computer Shopper's Best Netbook of 2008, PC Pro's Hardware of the Year, PC World's Best Netbook, and DIME magazine’s 2008 Trend Award Winner.

ASUS subsequently added several products to its Eee lineup, including:

• EeeBox PC, a compact nettop
• Eee Top, an all-in-one touchscreen computer housed in an LCD monitor enclosure,
• Eee Stick, a plug-and-play wireless controller for the PC platform that translates users’ physical hand-motions into corresponding movements onscreen
• Eee Pad Transformer, is a tablet computer that runs the Android operating system
• Eee Pad Transformer Prime, the successor to the original Transformer.

On 6 March 2009, ASUS debuted its Eee Box B202, which PCMag saw as "the desktop equivalent of the ASUS EeePC", (the "ASUS Eee Box" computer line is later in 2010 renamed to "ASUS EeeBox PC").

Essentio Series

Essentio is a line of desktop PCs. As of December 2011 the line consisted of the CG Series (designed for gaming), the CM series (for entertainment and home use) and the CS and CP slimline series.

Digital media receivers

ASUS sells digital media receivers under the name ASUS O!Play.

GPS devices

ASUS produces the R700T GPS device, which incorporates Traffic Message Channel.

Republic of Gamers (ROG)

Republic of Gamers is a brand used by ASUS since 2006, encompassing a range of computer hardware, personal computers, peripherals, and accessories oriented primarily toward PC gaming.

Graphic cards

ASUS released wireframe display drivers in 2001 that enabled players to use wallhacks, announcing the settings as "special weapons" that users could employ in multiplayer games.

Sound cards

ASUS released its first sound card, the Xonar DX, in February 2008. The Xonar DX was able to emulate the EAX 5.0 effects through the ASUS GX software while also supporting Open AL and DTS-connect. In July 2008 ASUS launched the Xonar D1, which offered largely similar features to the Xonar DX but connected to the motherboard through the PCI interface instead of the PCI-E x1 connection of the Xonar DX. ASUS then released the Xonar HDAV 1.3, which was the first solution enabling loss-less HD audio bit streaming to AV receivers.

In May 2009, ASUS launched the Essence ST sound card, targeted at high-end audiophiles, and featuring 124db SNR rating and precision audio clock tuning. In the same month, ASUS refreshed the HDAV family by releasing the HDAV 1.3 slim, a card targeted for HTPC users offering similar functionality to HDAV 1.3 but in a smaller form. During Computex 2010, ASUS introduced its Xonar Xense, an audio bundle composed of the Xense sound card and a special edition of the Sennheiser PC350 headset. In August 2010, ASUS released the Xonar DG sound card targeted at budget buyers and offering 5.1 surround sound support, 105db SNR rating, support for Dolby headphone and GX 2.5 support for emulating EAX 5.0 technology.

Tablets

ASUS MeMO Pad road show

A version of the Nexus 7, manufactured for and branded as Google, was announced on 27 June 2012 for release in July 2012. ASUS has also been working with Microsoft in developing Windows 8 convertible tablets. In 2013, ASUS revealed an Android-based tablet computer that, when attached to a keyboard, becomes a Windows 8 device, which it called the Transformer Book Trio. The keyboard can be attached to a third party monitor, creating a desktop-like experience. ASUS is also known for the following tablet computer lines:

• Eee Pad Transformer
• Eee Pad Slider
• Eee Slate
• Memo Pad 8

ASUS VivoPC line

ASUS entered the box-PC market with the Vivo PC line in November 2013. ASUS VivoPCs come without a pre-installed Windows operating system.

On 23 Oct 2013 ASUS launched two models of VivoPCs in India. VivoPC was initially announced with Intel Celeron processor equipped VM40B model. But in India, the company released VivoPC along with a new model called VC60 which is equipped by Intel Core series processors.

Environmental record

Green ASUS

In 2000, ASUS launched Green ASUS, a company-wide sustainable computing initiative overseen by a steering committee led by Jonney Shih, the Chairman of ASUS. According to the company, ASUS pursues green policies in "Design, Procurement, Manufacturing, and Marketing."

Recognition

In 2006, ASUS obtained IECQ (IEC Quality Assessment System for Electronic Components) HSPM (Hazardous Substance Process Management) certification for its headquarters and for all of its manufacturing sites.

In 2007, Oekom Research, an independent research institute specialising in corporate responsibility assessment, recognized ASUS as a "highly environmental friendly company" in the "Computers, Peripherals and Office Electronics Industry".

In October 2008, ASUS received 11 Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) Gold Awards for its products, including four of its N-Series notebooks, namely the N10, N20, N50 and N80. In the following month, it received EU Flower certification for the same N-Series notebooks at an award ceremony held in Prague. In December 2008, Det Norske Veritas conferred the world’s first EuP (Energy-using Product) certification for portable notebooks on these machines.

Recycling campaign

In April 2008, ASUS launched its "PC Recycling for a Brighter Future" program in collaboration with Intel and with Tsann Kuen Enterprise Co. The program collected more than 1,200 desktop computers, notebooks and CRT/LCD monitors, refurbished them and donated them to 122 elementary and junior high schools, five aboriginal communities and the Tzu Chi Stem Cell Center.

Pirated software and dissemination of confidential data

In September 2008, PC Pro discovered through a reader that ASUS had accidentally shipped laptops that contained cracked and pirated software. Both physical machines and recovery CDs contained confidential documents from Microsoft and other organizations, internal ASUS documents, and sensitive personal information including CVs.

At the time, an ASUS spokesperson promised an investigation at "quite a high level", but declined to comment on how the files got on the machines and recovery media. It was demonstrated that an unattended installation of Windows Vista could accidentally copy material from a flash drive with a parameter in the "unattend.xml" file on the personal flash drive being used to script the installation.

Last updated on 18 October 2014 at 23:22.

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