Asus makes waves in enterprise tablet market

Taiwanese mobility specialist enjoys robust Eee Pad sales to become Apple's biggest threat, Context figures reveal

Asus is emerging as Apple's most significant contender for the channel's tablet affections, data from Context has revealed.

The analyst's sell-through figures for Q3 reveal that the maker of the Eee Pad shifted 60,000 tablets through western European distributors during the period. Acer also enjoyed a better-than-expected quarter, punting 48,000 of its Iconia range of tablet devices through distributors in the area.

The fire-sale of HP's doomed TouchPad device helped the vendor push 66,000 tablets through the western European channel during the period.

But Apple remains a dominant leader, with more than 433,500 iPads passing through UK and continental distribution partners during Q3.

Salman Chaudhry (pictured), mobile computing analyst at Context, singled out the Eee Pad's keyboard docking station as a key attractive feature for enterprise buyers.

"The iPad does the job of a media consumption device very well, but sending an email of more than a couple of paragraphs is very frustrating," he said. "Asus have created a device that does content creation very well."