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ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
Company typePublic
LSE: ASKD
TWSE: 2357
IndustryComputer hardware and electronics
Founded2 April 1990[1]
FounderTH Tung
Ted Hsu
Headquarters
Taipei
,
Taiwan
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Jonney Shih, Chairman
Jerry Shen, CEO
TH Tung, VP & founder
Ted Hsu, VP & founder
ProductsMotherboards, graphics cards, laptops, netbooks, monitors, multimedia, servers and peripherals
RevenueUS$21.2 billion (2009)[2]
Decrease 7.9% from 2008
US$0.52 billion (2009)[2]
Decrease 37.9% from 2008
Number of employees
104,294 (2009)[2]
WebsiteAsus.com

ASUSTeK Computer Incorporated (ASUS) (traditional Chinese: 華碩電腦股份有限公司; simplified Chinese: 华硕电脑股份有限公司; pinyin: Huáshuo Diànnaǒ Gufen Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī) is a Taiwan-based multinational corporation which produces motherboards, laptops, servers, mobile phones and other computer products. Commonly called by its brand name ASUS (usually pronounced /ɑːˈsuːs/, or /ˈeɪsəs/ in English-speaking countries), the company is listed on both the London Stock Exchange (LSE: ASKD) and the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE: 2357). As of 26 November 2009, 29.2% of PCs sold in the previous 12 months worldwide came with an ASUS motherboard.[3] The company's 2009 revenues reached US$21.2 billion.[2]

ASUS appears in BusinessWeek’s "InfoTech 100" and "Asia’s Top 10 IT Companies" rankings. Wall Street Journal Asia ranks it number one in quality and service, and it leads the IT Hardware category of the 2008 Taiwan Top 10 Global Brands survey with a total brand value of US$1.324 billion.[4]

ASUS also produces components for other manufacturers, such as:

Corporate information

History

TH Tung, Ted Hsu, Wayne Hsieh, and MT Liao founded ASUS on 2 April 1990[1] in Taipei, Taiwan — all four founders worked as computer engineers for Acer. The company explains the name ASUS as originating from Pegasus, the winged horse of Greek mythology.[5][6] The new organization used only the last four letters of the word in order to give the resulting name a high position in alphabetical listings.[7]

In 2008, shipments from ASUS, ECS, Gigabyte, and MSI totaled 104.86 million units. ASUS led with 52 million units, followed by ECS with 20 million, MSI with 18 million, and Gigabyte with 16.6 million.[citation needed]

Relationship with Intel

In the early 2000s, Taiwan-based motherboard manufacturers had not yet established their leading positions in the computer-hardware business. Intel Corporation would supply any new processors to more established companies like IBM first, and the Taiwanese companies would have to wait for approximately six months after IBM received their engineering prototypes.[8]

When Intel released its 486 as engineering samples, an ASUS chief engineer named Joseph Uzelac decided to design a 486 motherboard without having a 486-processor engineering sample on site, using only the technical details published by Intel and the experience he had gained while making 386-compatible motherboards. When ASUS finalized its 486 motherboard prototype, they took it to Intel's base in Taiwan for testing. Unsurprisingly, they received no formal greeting when they arrived. It turned out that Intel's own 486 motherboard prototype had encountered design flaws, which Intel's engineers had started to rectify. The ASUS founders drew on their experience with the 486 and had a look at Intel's malfunctioning motherboard. Their solution worked, to the Intel engineers' surprise. Intel then tested the ASUS prototype, which functioned perfectly. This marked the beginning of an informal relationship between the two companies – as of 2009, ASUS receives Intel engineering samples ahead of its competitors.[8]

ASUS has become one of the main supporters of Intel's Common Building Block initiatives.

Corporate restructuring

In January 2007, ASUS started restructuring its operations.[9] The company split into three distinct operational units: ASUS, Pegatron and Unihan.[citation needed]

The ASUS brand will apply solely to first-party branded computers. Pegatron will handle OEM manufacturing of motherboards and components. Unihan will focus on non-PC manufacturing such as cases and molding.

In the process of restructuring, the highly criticized pension-plan restructuring effectively zeroed out the existing pension balances. The company paid out all contributions previously made by employees.[10]

Open Handset Alliance

On 9 December 2008, the Open Handset Alliance announced that ASUSTek Computer Inc. 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."[11]

Timeline

  • 2002: Forms subsidiary ASRock.
  • September/October 2003: debuts in the cellphone market with the J100 model.[12]
  • September 2005: releases the first PhysX accelerator card.[13]
  • December 2005: enters the LCD TV market with the TLW32001 model, initially only available in the Taiwan market.[14]
  • January 2006: ASUS announces that it will cooperate with Lamborghini to develop its VX series.[15][dead link‍]
  • 9 March 2006: ASUS announced as one of the producers of the first Microsoft Origami models, together with Samsung and Founder Technology.[16]
  • 8 August 2006: Asus announces a joint venture with Gigabyte Technology.[17](subscription required)
  • 5 June 2007: Asus announces the Eee PC at COMPUTEX Taipei 2007
  • 9 September 2007: ASUS indicates support for Blu-Ray, announcing the release of a BD-ROM/DVD writer PC drive, BC-1205PT.[18] The release of several Blu-Ray based notebooks follows.
  • 31 October 2007: Asus launches a PDA/smartphone range in the UK market
  • 3 January 2008: Asus formally splits into three companies: ASUSTeK, Pegatron and Unihan.[19][unreliable source?]
  • May 2008: Incompatibility of ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard with Windows XP SP3 first discovered
  • August 2008: Asus declines to accept responsibility, or provide support, for the incompatibility between its A8N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard and Windows XP SP3[20]
  • 12 August 2008: Asus produces a new motherboard (ZT23) capable of clocking a processing speed of 120GHz, a record.
  • 22 August 2008: Details of the N10 leaked online.[21]
  • December 2008: Asus releases a beta BIOS update that potentially fixes the Windows XP SP3 incompatibility with the ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard.

Manufacturing facilities and service centers

As of 2009 ASUS has manufacturing facilities in:

Asus claims a monthly production capacity of two million motherboards and 150,000 notebook computers.[22][verification needed]

The ASUS Hi-Tech Park, located in Suzhou, China, covers 540,000 square meters, roughly the size of 82 soccer fields.

ASUS operates 50 service sites in 32 countries and has over 400 service partners worldwide. It provides support in 37 languages.

Products

Asus produces motherboards, graphics cards, sound cards, optical disc drives, PDAs, computer monitors, laptops, servers, networking products, mobile phones, computer cases, computer components, and computer cooling systems.

Eee

Since its launch in October 2007, the Eee PC netbook has garnered numerous awards, including Forbes Asia’s Product of the Year[23], Stuff Magazine’s Gadget of the Year and Computer of the Year,[24] 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's Essentio desktop - marketed as a home entertainment PC with an HDMI port, remote control and high gloss black finish - has been discontinued.

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

  • Eee Box, 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

On 6 March 2009, Asus debuted its Eee Box B202, which PCMag saw as "the desktop equivalent of the Asus EeePC".[25]

With its price range between US$269 and US$299, this desktop competed directly with the Mac Mini.[26]

Corporate responsibility

Green ASUS

In 2000, Asus officially launched Green ASUS,[27] a company-wide sustainable computing initiative overseen by a steering committee led by Jonney Shih, the Chairman of ASUSTek Computer Inc. Green ASUS pursues what the company calls the "Four Green Home Runs", namely: "Green Design, Green Procurement, Green Manufacturing, and Green Service and Marketing".[28]

Green ASUS measures

  • As of 2009 Green ASUS restricts 37 hazardous substances, 31 more than the 6 stipulated by the European Union RoHS.
  • ASUS designs its notebooks to meet Energy Star standards. As of 2009 over 50 ASUS notebooks have Energy Star certification.
  • In 2005, ASUS launched Taiwan’s first GPMS (Green Product Management System) information-technology platform.
  • In 2006, ASUS became the first computer manufacturer in Taiwan to develop an easy-to-reuse and easy-to-recycle end-of-life "green design" system.
  • In September 2006, ASUS initiated a free take-back program for all ASUS-manufactured products in the USA.

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.[29]

In 2007, Oekom Research, an independent research institute specializing in corporate responsibility assessment, recognized ASUS as a "highly environmental friendly company" in the "Computers, Peripherals and Office Electronics Industry".[30]

In October 2008, ASUS received 11 EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) Gold Awards for its products,[31] 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.[30] In December 2008, Det Norske Veritas conferred the world’s first EuP (Energy-using Product) certification for portable notebooks on these machines.[30]

Recycling campaign

In April 2008, ASUS launched its "PC Recycling for a Brighter Future"[32][33] program in collaboration with Intel and with Tsann Kuen Enterprise Co. This 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[34] that ASUS had 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.[35]

The blogosphere provides details of how an unattended installation of Windows Vista accidentally copied material from a flash drive due to a parameter in the "unattend.xml" file on the personal flash drive used to script the installation.[36][37]

See also

Template:Companies portal

References

  1. ^ a b "Company Profile". Official website. ASUSTeK Computer Inc. 2009. Retrieved 27 November 2009.
  2. ^ a b c d "Fortune Global 500 #436: ASUSTeK Computer". Fortune. 20 July 2009. Retrieved 27 November 2009.
  3. ^ "Chipsets: Motherboard Market Share". Canard PC. CPU-Z. 26 November 2009. Retrieved 27 November 2009. With no surprise, Asus is still leading the mainboard market. However, the proportion tends to decrease this last year.
  4. ^ 2008 Top Taiwan Global Brands announced today(2008/10/23)
  5. ^ "Origin of the Name 'ASUS'". Asus website. Asus. Retrieved 2009-08-04. ASUS comes from the last four letters of Pegasus, the winged horse in Greek mythology that represents the inspiration of art and learning. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |month= (help)
  6. ^ Russian-language interview with Alexander Kim (Алекс Ким), October 2003
  7. ^ Maks, Kurmaz. "Интервью с ASUS". HW.by (Belorusian Iron Site) (in Russian). Retrieved 2009-08-04. Компания ASUS образовалась в 1989 году [...] Ее название образовано от английского слова "Pegasus" [...] Была взята только часть названия – "asus", чтобы быть в начале списка по алфавиту. [Translation: The ASUS company formed in 1989 ... Its name is formed from the English word "Pegasus" ... [We] took only part of the name: "asus", in order to be at the beginning of alphabetical order.] {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month= and |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ a b 巨獅傳奇：華碩成長為世界500強的故事
  9. ^ DailyTech
  10. ^ Kubicki, Kristopher (2008-01-03). "New ASUS Corporate Structure Zeroes Employee Pensions". DailyTech. Retrieved 2009-03-28. Under the new corporate entity, ASUS employees were paid out all pension plans regardless of maturity as of 1 January 2008. All employees at the three new companies must start their tenure from scratch.
  11. ^ Open Handset Alliance
  12. ^ J100 Phone from ASUS
  13. ^ ASUS PhysX Card Ready
  14. ^ ASUS enters LCD TV market with TLW32001 32" LCD TV
  15. ^ ASUS and Lamborghini Join in Comprehensive Partnership
  16. ^ John, Walko (2006-03-09). "Microsoft Unfolds Origami, The 'On The Go' PC". InformationWeek. Retrieved 2009-11-16. Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) says three companies have built working models -- Samsung, Asus, and Founder, China's second largest PC maker. The Samsung and Asus devices are expected to be in stores by April, and the Founder device in June.
  17. ^ ASUStek and Gigabyte form joint venture
  18. ^ "ASUS BD-ROM/DVD writer drive". 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-09.
  19. ^ New ASUS Corporate Structure Zeroes Employee Pensions
  20. ^ WindowsXP SP3 and ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe MoBo
  21. ^ Pictures of Eee PC's big brother leak online
  22. ^ Data retrieved from Asus' official website.
  23. ^ Product of the Year: Asustek's Eee PC
  24. ^ Stuff Gadget Awards – Eee PC wins gadget of the year
  25. ^ Santo Domingo, Joel (2008-06-02). "ASUS Debuts Desktop-Equivalent Eee PC". PCMag. Retrieved 2009-04-03. ASUS introduced on Monday the Eee Box B202, the desktop equivalent of the ASUS Eee notebook PC.
  26. ^ "ASUS Debuts Desktop-Equivalent Eee PC". PCMag. 2008-06-02. Retrieved 2009-04-03.
  27. ^ Green ASUS
  28. ^ "ASUS Conferred World's First EuP Certification for Portable Notebooks for Its N Series Notebooks". Asus. 2008. Retrieved 2009-03-28. ASUS' sustainability drive — Green ASUS — which was initiated in 2000, pursues the Green ASUS "Four Green Home Runs" in the design and production of each notebook, namely: Green Design, Green Procurement, Green Manufacturing, and Green Service and Marketing. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month= and |coauthors= (help)
  29. ^ "GreenASUS Management System". Official website. ASUSTeK Computer Inc. 2009. Retrieved 27 November 2009.
  30. ^ a b c "GreenASUS News and Awards". Official website. ASUSTeK Computer Inc. 2009. Retrieved 27 November 2009.
  31. ^ Epeat.net
  32. ^ Asus, Intel Team up for PC Recycling in Taiwan
  33. ^ Asus Recycle
  34. ^ "Asus ships software cracker on recovery DVD". PC Pro. 2008-09-17. Retrieved 2009-06-21. The startling discovery was made by a PC Pro reader whose antivirus software was triggered by a key cracker for the WinRAR compression software, which was located on the recovery DVD for his Asus laptop. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month= and |coauthors= (help)
  35. ^ PC Pro: News: ASUS ships software cracker on recovery DVD
  36. ^ Anthony (2008-09-20). "Asus Recovery DVD scandal: How it happened". The Coffee Desk. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month= and |coauthors= (help)
  37. ^ timothy (2008-09-22). "How Asus Recovery Disks Ended Up Carrying Software Cracks". Slashdot. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month= and |coauthors= (help)
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