Asustek launches Android phones in European market.

Taipei, Sept. 30, 2009 (CENS)--Dedicated to application of Google's Android platform to its products, Asustek Computer Inc., a world-caliber supplier of notebook PCs, is going to launch an Android platform-based smartphone, A1, in the European market in October as the earliest, according to industry sources.

The A1 has been already orderable on a European e-shopping website, Expansys, and tagged with a unit price of euro 389 (about US$564 at US$1: euro1.45), cheaper than HTC'\s competing model, Hero, which sells for over US$600 per unit in Asia. However, Asustek has yet to officially announce the phone's price and related promotion cooperation with local telecom companies.

Since acquiring E-Ten Information System Co. as its first step to venture into development of smartphones in September 2008, Asustek has launched several models in the first half of this year, all installed with Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system.

A1 is the firm's first independently developed smartphone compatible with Google's Android operating system. Noteworthy is that Asustek is even faster in launching Android phones than most globally well-known handset brands such as Motorola and LG, showing its excellent R&D capability. At the moment, only HTC (Magic and Hero) and Samsung (Galaxy i7500) have launched their Android smartphones in the global market.

To quickly build its name in the smartphone market, Asustek has also cooperated with Garmin, the leading brand of GPS (global positioning system) devices, to develop GPS phones, and has already launched two new models under a dual-brand Garmin-asus in the third quarter of this year, which are installed with Linux and Windows Mobile, respectively.

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