this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2026
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116
Asus confirms it will ‘no longer’ make Android smartphones as it shifts focus to AI (9to5google.com)
submitted 19 hours ago by cm0002@lemmings.world to c/android@lemdro.id
27 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Asus has reiterated that it will “no longer” be making “new” Android smartphones with its focus shifting towards the market built up by AI.

During its “2025 Year-End Gala” earlier this month, Inside reports that Asus chairman Jonney Shih directly confirmed that the company will exit the Android smartphone market.

When asked about the move, he said (translated) that “Asus will no longer add new mobile phone models in the future,” further adding that the company will “continue to take care of the brand’s mobile phone users.” This could be taken in one of two ways, with Asus either exiting the smartphone market altogether or just ending the development of new smartphone models beyond existing lineups, but in context, it’s clearly the former.

Further comments from the chairman revealed that Asus is shifting its resources away from smartphones in order to align with the “paradigm shift” that is… AI. Of course.

The company is apparently using the resources previously spent on mobile phones to bolster “commercial PCs and physical AI devices,” including “AI Robot & Robotics” and “AI Glasses.”

top 27 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 14 points 10 hours ago

Tech companies are now superfluous and a dime a dozen. This AI bubble should wipe out enough of them and leave us with a manageable level of dystopic tech goons. Then we can work on tightening up the foundation with planning that is beneficial to society, not filling up pockets of a few to finally end up in an enshittification vacuum.

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 15 points 11 hours ago

Asus driving slow and still missing the warning signs.

[–] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 11 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

Uhg. Just die, AI. It's so anti-consumer at this point.

[–] finalaccountforreal@piefed.social 30 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

I had no idea Asus made Android phones.

[–] Bazell@lemmy.zip 10 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Mostly gaming focused ones. They were not very good for their price anyway.

[–] UnityDevice@startrek.website 6 points 11 hours ago

They seem good on paper - every time I look for a phone on gsmarena's phone finder I get a few of their rog phones in the results. But then I look at the price tag and the gamer aesthetic, and I ignore them.

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 12 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

It's funny how everyone is trying to shift towards AI when the most hyped smartphone atm is one with a physical keyboard by the blackberry designers

[–] BorgDrone@feddit.nl 14 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Is it? Because I work in mobile app development so I’m surrounded by phone nerds and I haven’t seen any hype about it at all.

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 3 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Any other phones that are really hyped? They're all the same

[–] BorgDrone@feddit.nl 5 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

No. Like you said it’s all the same. Not much interesting going on at the moment.

When the new super thin iPhone launched there was a little bit of interest, as in: people had to check it out and see how thin it was, and then everyone was like ‘yeah, it’s super thin but so what?’.

[–] ijeff@lemdro.id 2 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

The iPhone Air is actually surprisingly nice. The drawback of horrible speakers is a deal breaker though.

[–] BorgDrone@feddit.nl 1 points 9 hours ago

It feels nice in the hand but at the end of the day it’s just another iPhone.

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 19 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

Asus has always just chased after the short term goals. This reminds me when they suddenly made android tablets, and mini pcs, and every stupid tech fad. They're always after the latest fad, they release a subpar product, and then it fizzles.

[–] Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 10 points 15 hours ago

they release a subpar product, and then it fizzles.

I'm disappointed they're jumping on AI bullshit. But I have to wholeheartedly disagree with you about the "sub par product".

  • My Asus desktop has been chugging along for a decade.
  • My Asus Chromebook Flip has been going with no issues for at least four or five (though it's long since been flipped to Linux)
  • The Asus laptop I had before THAT is older than the desktop and quite happily living it's retirement as a home-theatre PC connected to my television.

I have quite literally never had Asus hardware break down on me.

[–] JayGray91@piefed.social 13 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

On the other hand they seem to be the only one alongside lenovo that tries to do something different with laptops. Like dual monitor laptops. They've been at that for years and keep improving.

But maybe I'm misunderstanding what a fad is, and I'm just easily fooled by gimmicks lol

[–] RedRibbonArmy@sh.itjust.works 5 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Asus also had a smartphone that you could dock to a tablet screen and transform your phone into a tablet. That was like 10+ years ago.

[–] JayGray91@piefed.social 2 points 11 hours ago

Oh yeah I remember that. Along with Motorola back then

[–] manxu@piefed.social 10 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

It's such a humbling moment, to see the company that revolutionized PCs with their EEE netbooks come to a slow end, becoming the lemming follower (and seeing that from Lemmy, no less).

[–] deafboy@lemmy.world 1 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

If I'm thankful for one thing in the IT sphere, it's the end of the netbook era. Those machines should never have been made in the first place.

While the form factor was great in theory, the performance was lacking, and the cooling was inadequate.

[–] manxu@piefed.social 1 points 5 hours ago

True, true - but they shocked the marked into drastically lowering prices for small form factor laptops. Until the EEE came out, anything under 3 lbs was thousands of dollars and considered premium hardware. ASUS showed there is a market for cheap, small, lightweight laptops.

[–] pycorax@sh.itjust.works 3 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

come to a slow end

In what way? Their laptops are still pretty good and even though they are overpriced, their PC components seem to be doing well despite that.

[–] manxu@piefed.social 1 points 5 hours ago

It's not about the current state, it's about deciding on an AI-first approach. And even there, it's not that in itself, but the fact the erstwhile innovator is now just a bandwagon follower unable to see the signs the bandwagon is going down the hill.

[–] Wiz@midwest.social 13 points 18 hours ago (3 children)

What in the Devil's name are "A.I. glasses"?

[–] Zedstrian@lemmy.dbzer0.com 28 points 18 hours ago

A means to collect even more personal information for sale to data brokers.

[–] TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 6 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Smart glasses with a rebrand.

I'd be wary of smart glasses though, they're the holy grail of data harvesting. Companies will be able to see exactly what holds people's attention, what they look at most, what tempts them most, as well as see any personal information you look at, what physical goods you own and interact with, etc.

There's a reason Google chased it so hard, and why companies like Meta are trying to do it now.

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 2 points 12 hours ago

And people basically just used it to film themselves fucking and awkwardly record social situations without consent. Hence the users got the name glassholes.

[–] JayGray91@piefed.social 6 points 17 hours ago

While the snark is very much deserved, it's most likely augmented reality glasses. Either providing virtual screens like say XReal or Viture, thus smaller and less cumbersome than Apple Vision. Or something a lot more wearable like the Meta Rayban sunglasses with POV camera and speakers.

They can cram any kind of AI fluff in there.