Asus
ASUSTeK Computer Inc. (/ˈeɪsuːs/,[3] /eɪˈsuːs/,[4] /ɑːˈ-/,[5] /əˈ-/;[6] Chinese: 華碩電腦股份有限公司; pinyin: Huáshuò Diànnǎo Gǔfèn Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī; stylized as ASUSTeK or ASUS) is a Taiwanese[7] multinational computer, phone hardware and electronics manufacturer headquartered in Beitou District, Taipei, Taiwan. Its products include desktop computers, laptops, netbooks, mobile phones, networking equipment, monitors, Wi-Fi routers, projectors, motherboards, graphics cards, optical storage, multimedia products, peripherals, wearables, servers, workstations and tablet PCs. The company is also an original equipment manufacturer (OEM).
Not to be confused with APUS Group, ASOS (retailer), Asos, or Esus.
Native name
華碩電腦股份有限公司
Huáshuò Diànnǎo Gǔfèn Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī
April 2, 1989
- Ted Hsu
- M. T. Liao
- Wayne Tsiah
- T. H. Tung
- Luca D. M.
Worldwide
- Jonney Shih
(Chairman & Chief Branding Officer) - Jonathan Tsang
(Vice Chairman)
NT$12.9 billion (2022)[1]
NT$16.8 billion (2022)[1]
NT$471 billion (2022)[1]
NT$226 billion (2022)[1]
17,000[2]
華碩電腦股份有限公司
华硕电脑股份有限公司
ASUS Computer Stock-share Limited Company
Huáshuò Diànnaǒ Gǔfèn Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī
Huáshuò Diànnaǒ Gǔfèn Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī
Huashuo Diannao Gufen Yousiang Gongsih
ﺧُﻮَ ﺷُﻮَع دﯾًﺎ ﻧَﻮْ ﻗُﻮْ فٌ ﻳَﻮْ ﺷِﯿًﺎ ﻗْﻮ سِ
Fà sa̍k thien-nó kú fun yû han kûng-sṳ̂
Wàh sehk dihn nóuh gú fán yáuh haahn gūng sī
Hôa se̍k tiān-náu kó͘ hūn ū hān kong si
華碩
华硕
"Chinese-Eminent"
Eminence of/by the Chinese people
(華人之碩; 华人之硕)
Huáshuò
Huáshuò
Fà sa̍k
Wàh sehk
Hôa se̍k
As of 2024, Asus is the world's fifth-largest personal computer vendor by unit sales.[8] Asus appears in BusinessWeek's "InfoTech 100" and "Asia's Top 10 IT Companies" rankings, and it ranked first in the IT Hardware category of the 2008 Taiwan Top 10 Global Brands survey with a total brand value of US$1.3 billion.[9]
Asus has a primary listing on the Taiwan Stock Exchange under the ticker code 2357 and formerly had a secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker code ASKD.
Name[edit]
The company is usually referred to as ASUS or Huáshuò in Chinese (traditional Chinese: 華碩; simplified Chinese: 华硕, literally "Eminence by the Chinese"[10]). According to the company website, the name ASUS originates from Pegasus, the winged horse of Greek mythology.[11] Only the last four letters of the word were used to give the name a high position in alphabetical listings.[12] As its marketing taglines, Asus has used Rock Solid. Heart Touching (2003–2009) and subsequently Inspiring Innovation Persistent Perfection (2009–2013). Since 2013, the company's tagline has been In Search of Incredible.[13]
History[edit]
Asus was founded in Taipei in 1989[14] by T.H. Tung, Ted Hsu, Wayne Hsieh and M.T. Liao,[15] all four having previously worked at Acer as hardware engineers. At this time, Taiwan had yet to establish a leading position in the computer hardware business. Intel Corporation would supply any new processors to more established companies like IBM first, and Taiwanese companies would have to wait for approximately six months after IBM received their engineering prototypes. According to company history, Asus created a motherboard prototype for using an Intel 486, but it had to do so without access to the actual processor. When Asus approached Intel to request a processor to test it, Intel itself had a problem with its own 486 motherboard. Asus solved Intel's problem and it turned out that Asus' motherboard worked correctly without the need for further modification. Since then, Asus was receiving Intel engineering samples ahead of its competitors.[16][17]
In September 2005, Asus released the first PhysX accelerator card.[18] In December 2005, Asus entered the LCD TV market with the TLW32001 model.[19] In January 2006, Asus announced that it would cooperate with Lamborghini to develop the VX laptop series.[20]
On 9 March 2006, Asus was confirmed as one of the manufacturers of the first Microsoft Origami models, together with Samsung and Founder Technology.[21] On 8 August 2006, Asus announced a joint venture with Gigabyte Technology.[22] On 5 June 2007, Asus announced the launch of the Eee PC at Computex. On 9 September 2007, Asus indicated support for Blu-ray, announcing the release of a BD-ROM/DVD writer PC drive, BC-1205PT.[23] ASUS subsequently released several Blu-ray based notebooks.
In January 2008, Asus began a major restructuring of its operations, splitting into three independent companies: Asus (focused on applied first-party branded computers and electronics); Pegatron (focused on OEM manufacturing of motherboards and components); and Unihan Corporation (focused on non-PC manufacturing such as cases and molding).[24][25] In the process of the restructuring, a highly criticized pension-plan restructuring effectively zeroed out the existing pension balances. The company paid out all contributions previously made by employees.[26]
On 9 December 2008, the Open Handset Alliance announced that Asus had become one of 14 new members of the organization. These "new members will either deploy compatible Android devices, contribute significant code to the Android Open-Source Project, or support the ecosystem through products and services that will accelerate the availability of Android-based devices."[27]
On 1 June 2010, Asus spun off Pegatron Corp.[28]
In October 2010, Asus and Garmin announced that they would be ending their smartphone partnership as a result of Garmin deciding to exit the product category.[29] The two companies had produced six Garmin-ASUS branded smartphones over the prior two years.[29]
In December 2010, Asus launched the world's thinnest notebook, the Asus U36, with Intel processor voltage standard (not low voltage) Intel Core i3 or i5 with a thickness of only 19 mm.[30]
In January 2013, Asus officially ended production of its Eee PC series due to declining sales caused by consumers increasingly switching to tablets and Ultrabooks.[31][32] In April 2022, the company unveiled its new logo.[33][34]
ASUS ZenFone
An Asus Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card
An Asus x21 ultrabook
An Asus motherboard
Other initiatives[edit]
Esports[edit]
Asus ROG has been an active advocate for esports, having established some of their very own professional gaming teams.[78]
In January 2021, ROG announced the establishment of a new esports academy in India, with plans to scout and train professional gamers for the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) PC game.[79] The initiative will provide shortlisted gamers with coaching, gaming equipment, and stipends to prepare them for competitive esports tournaments on both the national and international levels.[80]
Environmental record[edit]
Recognition[edit]
In 2006, Asus obtained IECQ (IEC Quality Assessment System for Electronic Components) and HSPM (Hazardous Substance Process Management) certification for its headquarters and all of its manufacturing sites.[83]
In 2007, Oekom Research, an independent research institute specializing in corporate responsibility assessment, recognized Asus as a "highly environmental friendly company" in the "Computers, Peripherals and Office Electronics Industry".[84]
In October 2008, Asus received 11 Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) Gold Awards for its products,[85] including four of its N-Series notebooks, namely the N10, N20, N50, and N80. In the following month, it received EU Flower certification for the same N-Series notebooks at an award ceremony held in Prague.[84] In December 2008, Det Norske Veritas conferred the world's first EuP (Energy-using Product) certification for portable notebooks on these machines.[84]
Recycling campaign[edit]
In April 2008, Asus launched its "PC Recycling for a Brighter Future"[86][87] program in collaboration with Intel and with Tsann Kuen Enterprise Co. The program collected more than 1,200 desktop computers, notebooks and CRT/LCD monitors, refurbished them and donated them to 122 elementary and junior high schools, five aboriginal communities and the Tzu Chi Stem Cell Center.
Controversies[edit]
In September 2008, PC Pro discovered through a reader that Asus had accidentally shipped laptops that contained cracked and unlicensed software.[88] Both physical machines and recovery CDs contained confidential documents from Microsoft and other organizations, internal Asus documents, and sensitive personal information including CVs. At the time, an Asus spokesperson promised an investigation at "quite a high level", but declined to comment on how the files got on the machines and recovery media.[89] It was demonstrated that an unattended installation of Windows Vista could accidentally copy material from a flash drive with a parameter in the "unattend.xml" file on the personal flash drive being used to script the installation.[90]
In February 2014, a security vulnerability in the AiCloud functions on a number of Asus routers was compromised to distribute a text file warning of a vulnerability, disclosed in June 2013, allowing the ability to "traverse to any external storage plugged in through the USB ports on the back of the router" via the open internet. Before making the vulnerability public, the researcher was told by Asus that the behavior was "not an issue", but the vulnerability was reportedly patched shortly before the breach.[91] The IP addresses of 12,937 routers, and 3,131 AiCloud accounts were also leaked by the hackers.[92] The U.S. Federal Trade Commission issued a complaint about the breach for the company's "failure to employ reasonable security practices has subjected consumers to substantial injury", alleging that Asus had also failed to perform basic penetration tests, allowed users to maintain a default admin password for the AiDisk feature and failed to notify users of security updates in a timely fashion. As a result, it was also deemed that Asus had misled consumers over the security and protection that its routers provided. In February 2016, Asus settled the complaint, agreeing to implement a "comprehensive security program", including independent audits every two years for the next 20 years.[93][92]
In March 2019, Kaspersky Lab researchers disclosed a supply chain attack that affected the Asus Live Update software bundled on its laptops, dubbed ShadowHammer. Kaspersky stated that between June and November 2018, Asus servers had been compromised to distribute a modified version of Live Update, signed with an Asus signature, that contained a backdoor. It deployed a further payload if the device's network adapter matched an entry on an internal target list of around 600 MAC addresses. In response to ShadowHammer, Asus released a patched version of Live Update with improved security measures. Kaspersky and Symantec estimated that between 500,000 and 1 million devices were infected with the backdoor, although Asus attempted to downplay the severity of the breach by noting the extremely targeted nature of the attack. The breach did not affect the similar, identically named software associated with its motherboards.[94][95][96]
In April 2019, ESET disclosed that a group known as BlackTech had performed targeted attacks with malware known as Plead, distributed via the updater for the Asus WebStorage service. ESET stated that the group was likely using a man-in-the-middle attack via a vulnerability in routers, in combination with the updater using an unencrypted HTTP connection.[97]
In January 2022, Asus recalled some of its Z690 Maximus Hero motherboards due to a manufacturing flaw, where a RAM capacitor was installed backward—causing them to burn out associated MOSFETs and prevent the motherboard from detecting memory.[98]
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, ASUS initially refused to join a widespread withdrawal of businesses from the Russian market. In mid-March, the company did announce it was halting its operations in Russia, following a social media boycott and government pressure.[99][100]
In April 2023, a post on the PCMasterRace subreddit began gaining popularity regarding the user's AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU, which had visible burning, along with the socket of the Asus motherboard.[101] This sparked the attention of both people interested in PCs, who initially thought it was an issue with the 3D V-Cache Technology (as there had been previous user reports similar to this incident),[101] as well as enthusiast YouTube channels such as Gamers Nexus, who ran tests to successfully recreate the burning of their CPU.[102] They realised that the cause of the burning was due to a voltage error in the BIOS. In May, Asus responded to the incidents by releasing a Beta BIOS, which was supposed to fix the error. However, not only did the new BIOS not fix the issue; by installing it, the user voided their warranty as it was a Beta BIOS, which Asus clearly stated in the BIOS's description.[102][103][104] Later that month, Asus responded to the public backlash by reversing course, releasing a statement informing users that they will continue to honor warranty on motherboards that have been updated to beta BIOS versions, as well as extend motherboard warranty coverage to uses of AMD EXPO, Intel XMP, and DOCP memory overclocking technologies.[105][106]
