ASUS Cutting Netbook Shipments Due To iPad Demand

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Taiwan’s ASUS was really the first company to pioneer netbooks with their Eee PC brand and they’ve really increased their US brand awareness through the so-called “netbook revolution” of 08-09. However, the netbook era may be over for ASUS as they’re cutting production of their netbooks, allegedly due to the iPad, of all things.

According to ASUS CEO Jerry Shen, they’re cutting their target shipments of netbooks to just 1.4 million units in Q3 2010, which is traditionally when their netbook sales are highest (back to school time, one imagines). According to reputable Asian site Digitimes, this is due to increased demand from the iPad. But, ASUS promised to “step into the tablet PC segment.”

Overall, Q2 2010 wasn’t so keen to ASUS, who saw their performance decline on the quarter. This was primarily due to decreased demand for their motherboards, notebooks and netbooks. Their motherboards took a huge hit, with ASUS selling an incredible 1.3 million units less in Q2 than they did in Q1. Ouch.

The silver lining (at least for customers) is ASUS’ future roadmap. On the horizon, their tablet offerings look compelling. Coming in October, they have the Eee Note, which is their eReader. Then, they have a 12-inch Eee Pad running Windows 7 arriving in December 2010. Following that, in March 2011 is a 10-inch Eee Pad running Android.

Do any of ASUS’ tablets offerings interest you? Do you think the iPad is killing the netbook?