...
But when Microsoft launched Windows Phone 7 last fall with AT&T, Asus was conspicuously absent. Other handset vendors, including Dell, HTC, LG and Samsung supplied the first wave of Windows Phone 7 handsets instead.
Asus held back, says Benson Lin, Asus corporate vice president and the general manager of its mobile devices unit, because of strained resources and lingering questions about Microsofts then-untested software. We came up with a first-generation product on Windows Phone 7 that we could have gone to market with, said Lin in an interview at Mobile World Congress, a big telecom trade show. We were ready.
So ready, in fact, that in 2009 Asus produced 5,000 units of its Windows Phone 7 device. None were ever used, however, except by Microsoft engineers. As the 2010 Windows Phone 7 launch neared, Asus realized it didnt have the bandwidth to support a new cellphone initiative and the level of carrier support it would demand, says Lin.
At the time, Asus was a relative unknown in the U.S. cellphone market though its PCs, particularly its Eee PC netbooks, were popular among Americans, explains Lin. The company was also unsure whether carriers would back Windows Phone 7 or take a wait-and-see approach. In addition, Asus was preoccupied with its joint venture with navigation software provider Garmin. That partnership, which produced a line of GPS-centric phones called nuvifone on Androids mobile platform, ran two years before ending last December.
Confronted with these challenges, Asus postponed its Windows Phone 7 debut. We knew we had the ability to do it but decided to look for the best timing, says Lin. We figured that one year later, Windows Phone 7 should be in very good shape.
Asus is still assessing Windows Phone 7. Lin says the company hasnt yet decided how to proceed. He intends to spend the next several days at Mobile World Congress meeting with operators and gauging their interest in an Asus Windows Phone 7 device. The operator voice will be the key factor to think of in our Windows Phone 7 strategy, says Lin.
...