Any questions for Asus?

[fabarati]

Don't forget
F5, which is even budgetier than the F3
X55, which looks like a M50 or M51 with a matte lid
X53, which is like ^^ but with slower hardware
X50, which is even slower hardware.
The last three belong to the same series, probably.

The thing is, you don't really wanna give a consumer that much choice. They'll wonder why go for this, when you can go for that, which has the same specs or close to it, for much less. Then they'll buy a cheaper laptop, which will break and turn the consumer off Asus.

That should be 5 lines, Tops: budget, mainstream, gaming, business, luxury. And even that is a bit much. For 15", I say Budget, mainstream, business.

And then there's the various versions of the same Series. I still don't get the point 11 current versions of the F3. I think it's 11 anyways, I don't know which AMD version are still in production. But there's 6 intel ones (F3E, F3Sc, F3SE, F3SG, F3SR, F3Sv), all with different GPU's. While diversity and choice is good, it's only to a point. After that, the different F3's are competing with themselves.

Now, the ultraportable market (12" and smaller). Asus has 9 current models. A bit much, isn't it? 2 or 3 would be better.

Also remember that Asus has pretty much every size of laptop on the market (except larger than 17 and that weird 16" from Acer). Imagine the diversity in all those sizes.

The point of converging the lines is to keep down costs. When you have less models, you have less production lines. You can use the money saved to improve the present lines (say make the business models the same build quality as HP 8510p, for instance) and develop proper replacements. And fix that damn battery issue.

If incoherence, repetetion or contradictions is found in above rant, that's cause I wrote the parts out of order.

[red616]

Don't forget
F5, which is even budgetier than the F3
X55, which looks like a M50 or M51 with a matte lid
X53, which is like ^^ but with slower hardware
X50, which is even slower hardware.
The last three belong to the same series, probably.

The thing is, ....

The only possible solution I can come up with is that Asus is trying to please any possible buyer with any possible configuration in order to corner the notebook market. THEN Asus will proceed to cull all their models down to a sensible number.

While my logic may seem absurd...so is Asus's for creating all those models. I fear the horrible UK tech/customer support problem(s) is only the start of bad things to come if Asus does not start acting like the once great m/b producer it once was.

[richardlai]

Yes, like EBE said, if you're planning to move to the UK, I would be wary on purchasing an Asus notebook. The US and Canada are probably the 2 countries with best Asus CS. Hong Kong and Taiwan isn't bad either. I have a friend in Australia that says Asus CS is average (nothing spectacular like a one week turn around, but isn't as bad as UK CS).

Well that's a shame for UK customers as Asus is gaining momentum here in the UK, yet when customers realise their CS is unsatisfactory, Asus will have a hard time.

However, I must point out that coming from a fast-paced city like Hong Kong, the Brits seem to be less efficient (no offence though, just my two pence).

[richardlai]

The only possible solution I can come up with is that Asus is trying to please any possible buyer with any possible configuration in order to corner the notebook market. THEN Asus will proceed to cull all their models down to a sensible number.

It's like the bottled-water companies filling up the shelves with bottles of all sizes, some of which are of silly sizes that people would obviously never buy.

[Icaru506]

If she's in the sales department, the chances of her knowing anything at all about the products (except profit margins, and sales figures) is almost zero