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China Tech ASUS experiences
China Tech ASUS experiences | ASUS experiences |
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| China tech | |
| Monday, 18 September 2006 | |
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The Taiwanese company ASUS is a quiet giant. When everyone has been distracted by high profile companies doing high profile things ASUS has been building a fantastic worldwide support network, developing innovative and timely technology, and signing contracts that are astonishing in their scope. I wonder how many people know that the Apple MacBook is actually an ASUS computer? I remember the first time I encountered ASUS. A friend of mine from Taipei had one of their laptops. We were studying together at university and I was impressed with the level of functionality she got from her machine. I was relying on a clunky desktop at the time and might have achieved a greater level of productivity with smoke signals, quill pens and prayer. The coolest thing for me was that her laptop had this little sticker on it proudly proclaiming two years of world wide warranty. That's pretty amazing. My friend could have problems with her laptop anywhere in the world and get it fixed. The mind boggled. I'd never seen a support deal like that before outside of rather expensive corporate packages. When the world had rotated several times I found myself in the position to buy a new computer and I decided to buy an ASUS. It helped that I was going for a vacation in Taipei at the time and I could force my hapless friend to take me shopping. Fantastic. I got a neat computer at a low price, and the most important thing was that it was light. It was exactly what I was looking for. I giggled cheerfully to myself and returned to Japan (where I was working at the time) with great confidence in my world wide warranty. I'm not saying everything was a bed of roses. ASUS let me down pretty badly in the beginning. Within two weeks the laptop had hard drive difficulty, and the initial repairs failed to work. I even lost some data and started plotting the assassination of the ASUS board of directors. However, two years down the line my laptop is still working. It's still doing its job. When other people have suffered technical faults and systems failure I've keep on chugging. This is fairly amazing because I use the computer in a brutal fashion. It's sending emails, compiling code, doing word processing and endlessly reorganising thousands of files all day. Sometimes I expect it to burst into tears and sue me for abuse. All in all my ASUS experience has been positive. I got a powerful machine at a low price. After some initial problems this machine has performed well under horrific stress. I've more or less got the performance I'd expect from an IBM or Toshiba machine for about 60% of the cost. I've even had a world wide warranty to support me in my travel. I think companies like ASUS show exactly how Chinese and Taiwanese technology firms can excel. They don't rely on hype but instead on producing products that serve customer needs. Their ability to consistently deliver on these needs has lead to very big customers. You know, like Apple. You have to wonder about what will happen next. For the moment American, Japanese and European brands tend to dominate the technology market. A few exceptions exist, but generally Chinese or Taiwanese firms have operated with rather than competed with their contemporaries. This is true even to the extent that Levono decided to buy the IBM laptop and desktop franchise rather than construct their own. When will this change? At what point will ASUS decide they don't need Apple, and produce a world wide laptop that's heavily marketed under their own name? When will ACER do the same? I have a feeling the day will come. When a new generation of young Chinese consumers pass a certain point in their purchasing ability it'll make sense for firms to really push the cultural origin of their brands, and to provide timely solutions exactingly targeted at their local market that also scale upwards effectively to the international sphere. Right now I'd give almost anything to get a sneak peak into the research lab at ASUS or ACER. I bet they're cooking up some interesting things. Hey, it's not all roses though. There's not going to be automatic success. Most Chinese and Taiwanese firms have really sucked when it comes to providing well-designed products. It's telling that Apple asked ASUS to put together a box designed in California. One has to wonder why the ASUS designers didn't make their own MacBook ten years ago. Same deal with MP3 players native to the Chinese market. The price is low but the design is an aesthetic disaster. I wonder why. A lack of designers? A lack of market awareness? Whatever the cause, until the issue of nasty design is fixed it's going to be hard to gain sustainable traction in the world market. |
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