Asustek Computer plans to launch several tablet PCs featuring 7-, 10- or 12-inch panels and will start launching them in December 2010, according to company president Jerry Shen.

Asustek is aiming to mass produce the 12-inch model featuring the Wintel platform in December and will start selling the device in the channel in January 2011. With assistance from Microsoft, the company has made several enhancements in related technologies including touch control and user interface.

Asustek will also launch two 7-inch models and two 9-inch models in March 2011. One of the 7-inch models will feature support for Wi-Fi and the other 3.5G, while the later one will also feature phone functions. As for the 9-inch models, Asustek will have one model adopt the ARM-based Nvidia Tegra 2 platform with Google's Android operating system and the other the Wintel platform. The two 9-inch models will have a price gap of about US$100, Shen noted.

Shen also pointed out that the tablet PC market will be one of the major battlefields for Asustek in 2011 and the company has recently transferred about 200 technicians from its handheld device department, which originally had about 800 technicians, to support tablet PC R&D.

Asustek recently shipped about 5,000 9-inch TZ-900 e-book readers, designed specifically for religious charity group TzuChi and will start selling the 9-inch Eee Reader DR-900 in the channel along with its 8-inch Eee Note, featuring quick handwriting capability and camera, in late November.