Chromebooks, smartphones Asus’ saving grace for 2014 as profits dip 26%

As Asus profits continue to dip (26% in Q3 said The Taipei Times), the Taiwanese company plans to focus on growing its smartphone side of the business in order to fatten its portfolio. “We remain optimistic about the desktop and laptop market, but our priority is to make the company’s smartphone business turn a profit next year,” said Asustek CFO David Chang. Laptops make up 57% of all Asus profit, the tablets 20% and finally motherboards (13%). The other 10% are surely made up of peripheral sales.

For the 2014 Consumer Electronic Show (CES), Asustek CEO Jerry Shen promises that new Asus smartphones will be demoed and then launched January 2014, as well as various new Chromebooks launching “sometime next quarter as the traditional PC market keeps contracting.” Chromebooks are a hot property, in terms of actual overheating. Recently HP’s Chromebooks had to be recalled due to overheating and various other issues, said The Associated News.

It’s Asus’ plan to balloon its slumping market share with a smartphone boost: it says that it’ll sell over 5-million phones in 2014, up from the 1-million sales in 2013. Its new Chromebooks may also see a shift in sales as customers potentially choose one of these cheaper, cloud-based laptops. Asus’ new Chromebooks are 11.6″ and 13.3″ models, priced at US$199 and US$249 respectively. The company says that its new focus for the Chromebooks will be teachers and students looking for an affordable option. Notebook shipments are also expected to grow to 21-million units shipped for 2014, with tablets to exceed 13-million devices – that’s if Asus can secure production rights and become an OEM for Google’s Android Kit Kat device, the Nexus 7.

Predictably, Asus will also venture into wearable technology, says the report. Asus wouldn’t comment any further on this, but we can be assured that it points to one thing: another silly smartwatch to clutter the already overburdened tech scene. Asus, who has had varying degree of success with the PadFone and more recently with the FonePad (we see what you did there), will hopefully dazzle us with stellar devices come 2014.