ASUS teases Eee Pad and Eee Slate ahead of CES launch
Seems like all these CES vendors have wised up to the fact that announcing their new products amidst a maelstrom of new product announcements tends to be slightly counterproductive. So, naturally, they're spending their December carefully teasing out little pre-release details.
Context & Ripple Effects
ASUS entering the tablet race is no surprise given its lineage — Taiwanese component suppliers were flagging a touchscreen Eee PC back when the 9-inch Eee PC rumor first surfaced in January 2008, and the Eee line made netbook-style experimentation a brand identity. What is new is the naming: teasing both an 'Eee Pad' and an 'Eee Slate' signals more than one device, likely spanning different form factors or operating systems, ahead of the CES stage.
The timing also fits an emerging pattern. Dell confirmed its Android-powered tablet days before CES 2010 rather than on-stage, and HTC was reported in December 2009 to be building an iSlate competitor of its own. Vendors have learned that CES's announcement maelstrom buries individual launches, so the tease-before-the-show move is becoming standard practice for anyone chasing the post-iPad tablet market.
First-order effects
- ASUS gets a week of dedicated press attention for the Eee Pad and Eee Slate that would otherwise be diluted among hundreds of CES floor announcements, letting reviewers frame the lineup on ASUS's terms before the show opens.
- Every other CES 2011 tablet exhibitor now shares a news cycle already primed by ASUS's teaser, raising the bar for what counts as a differentiated reveal in Las Vegas.
Second-order effects
- Rivals preparing CES tablet unveilings face pressure to pre-announce too — Dell's pre-CES confirmation in 2010 showed the tactic works, and each successful tease accelerates adoption by competitors.
- Component suppliers and OS partners attached to the Eee Pad and Eee Slate gain early positioning in the year's most contested hardware category without waiting for show-floor benchmarks.
Third-order effects
- If pre-show teasing keeps spreading, CES drifts further from being a launch event toward being a validation event — products are effectively announced in December and merely demonstrated in January, echoing earlier criticism of the show as bloated relative to its news value.
- For ASUS specifically, a multi-device tablet strategy extends the Eee brand from low-cost laptops into slates, testing whether a netbook-era name can carry credibility against Apple and the incoming Android tablet cohort.
The trend: Consumer electronics vendors are decoupling product announcements from trade shows, using December teasers to control their narrative ahead of CES's crowded launch window.