Watch any tech event and you’ll find that brand touting how innovative and original their products are and how their brand of products are infinitely better for you than their competitors offerings. There is nowhere this is more evident than in the smartphone industry.
Google’s recent Pixel event contained many instances of the company espousing its industry-leading prowess and how flattered they are that other brands have blatantly copied its innovations at a much slower pace. This incredibly transparent jibe at Apple is nothing new, however, as MKBHD pointed out in his video covering the new Pixel products, it’s very clear that both Apple and Google — and other companies — liberally borrow from each other and then claim to have innovative new ideas.
While there’s nothing wrong with putting your own spin on an existing idea, my issue is the divisive nature in which brands weaponise them, thereby resulting in a consumer public that aggressively defends, to the point of insult, one brand over another. What people like this are defending is their reasoning for choosing a product that fits their life and workflow more than another product. There’s nothing wrong with that, but that doesn’t mean that they get to decide what’s right for someone else’s needs. Ultimately, all tech companies are creating products that focus on the key features they’ve identified as being the most important for their users, and really what you’re getting (regardless of brand) is the same exact thing with a different coat of paint.
When it comes to the PC market, things aren’t quite the same. Yes, laptop and PC manufacturers face similar challenges to their smartphone counterparts in terms of manufacturing constraints, rising costs and having access to the exact same components as their competitors, but what we’re seeing come out of companies like ASUS is true focused innovation.
According to Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger: “Technology has never been more important for humanity than it is now. Everything is becoming digital, with four key superpowers.” The superpowers – ubiquitous computing, cloud-to-edge infrastructure, pervasive connectivity and artificial intelligence – are set to transcend and transform the world. At this time we see no end to the demand for compute, and more compute continues to push the industry for more innovation. For example, the world creates nearly 270,000 petabytes (i.e. 27 x1019) of data every day. We are projecting that by the end of this decade, on average, all of us will have 1 petaflop (1015 floating-point operations per second) of compute and 1 petabyte of data less than 1 millisecond away.”
In my ASUS Vivobook Pro 14X review, I quoted a YouTuber who said: “No-one is doing more for creators right now than ASUS.”
While I still agree with that statement, after spending some time with ASUS and Intel at their recent Performance Day, that statement needs to be expanded to include the impressive work the brand is doing in its business laptop lineup and its bid to push the boundaries of the future of computing with its Zenbook 17 Fold OLED.
Based on stats shown by ASUS at the event, it’s clear that the brand has been making all the right moves. According to information provided by the company, ASUS experienced 20% year-on-year growth in the East EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) consumer segment, it has 68% of the OLED laptop marketshare globally and 94% OLED marketshare in South Africa in 2022.
These mind-blowing figures prove that Pat Gelsinger’s statement was correct with regards to the explosion in the amount of content created daily and that there is an increasing need for computing devices with impressive displays, new designs and tailored content creation capabilities.
According to Forbes, “the creator economy is estimated to be worth more than $100 billion, and more than 50 million people worldwide consider themselves creators.” This growing number of creators spans various mediums, including visual and audio, as well as different skill levels and increasing avenues to turn those passions into potentially lucrative businesses. In order to do that, they need the best tools they can afford and the best platform that fits their life and workflow in order to create content that is true to themselves.
While there certainly are many other brands who offer their own take on creator laptops, no-one is offering the unique, broad range of functionalities that ASUS does, whether it be dual-screens like the Zenbook Duo, physical dials like the one found on the ProArt Studiobook or the capacitive dial found on the Vivobook Pro series.
ASUS devices aren’t just meant for creatives. Around the world, ASUS is probably most well-known for its ROG (Republic of Gamers) range, and to a lesser extent, its TUF gaming lineup.
For anyone who needs something focused on business, there is the impressive ExpertBook range (which gives the HP Elite Dragonfly a serious run for its money) or the Zenbook lineup.
What’s even more impressive to me is how user-friendly more entry-level ASUS devices are, as evidenced by a very tech-oriented friend who purchased an ASUS E410 laptop for his, not very tech savvy, mom. His dad then decided that it was time to give up his MacBook and jump to ASUS as well. ASUS is the only brand I know that makes incredible, truly innovative laptops across various pricepoints and product lines, but is also able to make laptops that the ordinary, everyday person can use without hassle.
Satya Nadella, the Microsoft CEO, said in an interview: “We want to be a platform for platform creators, not just a platform for other people’s apps.” This is only possible by creating devices that meet people where they are and allow them to create within the reality they find themselves in at this very moment in their lives. By constantly evolving their existing product lines, ASUS is doing exactly this and without powerful tools like these, would we have had the internet or any of the apps, services, platforms and opportunities that we have today?
After all, as Satya Nadella said: “The web, it grew up on Windows. Think about it.”
