Rejoice! Asus has confirmed a new smartphone! And it's going to be called the MeMOFone HD5, and will be joined by a new tablet going by the name PadFone mini.
We've seen these mentioned before but only now has Asus offered a confirmation, with The MeMOFone HD5 coming, as the name suggests, in the guise of a 5-inch smartphone.
According to the China Times, Asus CEO Jerry Shen, who was speaking during the PadFone Infinity launch in Taiwan, stated that the MeMOFone HD5 will launch in either January or February of next year.
The PadFone mini is another strange smartphone/tablet hybrid, consisting of a 7-inch tablet coupled with a 4 inch smartphone. It's tipped to launch before the MeMOFone HD5, as Shen stated that it should be available in either November or December.
Size aside, no specs were confirmed for either device (or how they will even look), though the MeMOFone HD5 will presumably have an HD screen given the name.
Look to the sales
While neither the PadFone mini or the MeMOFone HD5 is likely to shift the same sort of numbers as the company's Nexus 7, they're bound to carve out a niche for themselves. Particularly the quirkily-conceived PadFone mini, as it fills a space that few other smartphone or tablet makers even seem to be looking at.
Asus certainly has high hopes for it anyway, as the company recently estimated that shipments of smartphones will reach 1.5 million units by the end of the year.
That might seem like an optimistic estimate for such a largely niche range of devices, but with a growing number of PadFone devices on the market sales of individual models needn't be that high.
Plus with the MeMOFone HD5 Asus isn't dependent on just bonkers hybrid phone/tablet sales, offeringsomething different to those who just want a smartphone.
- If the 7 inch PadFone mini is just too small then why not check out the 10.1 inch PadFone 2?
