
Asus has insisted that it is committed to building Windows 7 tablets and sees the Microsoft OS as a worthy competitor to Android and Apple's iOS. Asus' Julie Cheng told TechRadar at the UK launch of the Eee Pad Transformer in London this week that the company gets 'a lot' of enquiries from people who don't want Apple or Android. While many people, including writers on this site, have given Windows 7 a bit of a kicking as a touch OS in recent times, Asus told TechRadar that there is a demand for Windows 7 tablets and that it will continue to make them while that demand exists, no matter what. "We're making Windows 7 tablets because we still get a lot of enquiries from corporate and end users who are just used to Windows," said Cheng, product management specialist at Asus. "They don't want Apple and they don't want Android because they just simply want Windows - they're used to it. There are still demands for Windows solutions." Asus' first major Windows 7 tablet is the Eee Slate EP121, a 12-inch, heavyweight beast of a tablet which squeezes an Intel Core i5-470UM CPU and 4GB RAM into a unit which weighs 1.16Kg and costs about a thousand quid. Clearly, this device is not designed to compete with affordable 'consumption tablets' like Asus' own marvellous Eee Pad Transformer, an Android 3.0 tablet which goes on sale next week and starts at just £379. So is it fair to bash Windows 7 as a touch OS for tablets? We still think it is, but Asus says not. "Current competition, everyone is focusing on Android so we believe there are more sales on Android," Cheng says, "but we still want to have a Windows solution for those who really can't use other OS's
Read more: