At its Wednesday hardware launch event, Google gave Asus Chairman Jonney Shih just a quick, 15-second shout-out. "We worked very closely with Jonney and his team to deliver the first Nexus 7," said Sundar Pichai, the senior vice president who oversees Android, Chrome, and Google apps.
And that was all she wrote. Asus wasn't mentioned again. Pichai's words were fleeting, but don't underestimate Asus's role in the creation of the second coming of Nexus 7. The new tablet required intense coordination between Google and the Taiwanese manufacturer, all in the service of nailing lofty specs at the consumer-friendly price of $229.
"It almost broke us," Shih told me before a Thursday morning interview at the PCWorld and TechHive offices. And he wasn't talking about financials. Development of the latest Nexus 7 pushed Asus to the emotional brink as it accepted Google's goals to create a tablet that was thinner, faster, longer-lasting, and more feature-packed than its predecessor.
Read on, as Shih, chairman of one of the world's most successful PC, tablet, and component manufacturers, riffs on the whole excrutiating process. He also shares some painfully honest words about Windows 8, and discusses the possibility of an Asus smartphone for U.S. customers. (Interview edited for length and clarity.)
ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon