ASUS announces indefinite hiatus from smartphone development, focusing on laptops and AI
At the 2025 End of Year Appreciation Party held by ASUS at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center in Taiwan on January 16, 2026,
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https://www.inside.com.tw/article/40522-asus-phone-nomore
Asus confirms its smartphone business is on indefinite hiatus - Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/asus-confirms-its-smartphone-business-is-on-indefinite-hiatus/
ASUS has developed the high-end smartphone brand ' Zenfone ' series and the high-spec smartphone brand ' ROG Phone ' series for gamers. However, in response to a question from the media, Chairman Shi stated that 'ASUS will not be releasing any new smartphone models in the future.'
However, Chairman Shi made it clear that the company intends to continue supporting existing brand smartphone users, and it does not appear that the company plans to completely shut down its smartphone business. While the company stated that it is currently considering the specific support structure, it is expected that updates will continue to be provided for existing devices.
Technology media Ars Technica pointed out that 'The Zenfone series was marketed as being slightly smaller and cheaper than competing models, but ASUS's support and update policy lagged far behind the market leaders.' 'The latest model, the ROG Phone 9 Pro, was priced at an extremely high $1,200 (approximately 190,000 yen), but the cost burden was too high to be widely adopted by anyone other than a specific core user group.' It is speculated that ASUS decided it would be difficult to compete with major brands such as Apple and Samsung in terms of cameras and ecosystems.
Chairman Shi announced a temporary pause in smartphone development and said, 'R&D resources will be shifted to commercial PCs and physical AI.' Taiwanese media Inside points out that 'physical AI' refers to efforts in two major areas: 'AI robots and robotics' and 'AI smart glasses.' The smartphone division's development experience with Qualcomm platforms is expected to be utilized with a high degree of technological continuity in the development of commercial laptops and other products based on the Snapdragon X platform.
ASUS's business is doing well, with sales projected to increase 26.1% year-on-year in 2025, and its AI server business projected to grow 100%, or double. ASUS describes this decision as a 'strategic reallocation of resources to revive itself in the AI era.'
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in Hardware, Smartphone, Posted by log1i_yk