Asus expects to sell 10 million tablets in 2013

Nexus 7 and Windows 8 tablets look to push Asus tablet sales

During a third quarter call with investors Asus executives projected the company would sell 10 million tablets next year.

Chief executive Jerry Shen reported during a call with investors that Asus expects the release of new Nexus 7 tablet to push company sales in 2013. Shen said the Nexus 7 and the Asus line of new Windows 8 hybrid tablets will also help the company's fourth-quarter sales.

"I think 10 million [tablet sales] is a conservative target," Shen said during his call with investors.

Asus reported that it sold 2.3 million tablets for the third quarter of 2012. That represents a 300 per cent increase on the previous quarter.

Shen pointed to the Nexus 7 as a reason for the spike in tablet sales for the quarter. Asus co-built the Nexus 7 with Google for release earlier this year. The two companies have also recently re-teamed to expand the Nexus 7 line. Asus and Google will be releasing a 3G Nexus 7 later this year.

Along with the Nexus 7, Asus has a number of Windows 8 tablets in the pipeline. Asus expects to release the Taichi hybrid tablet and Transformer Book later this year.

Asus also projects that the fourth quarter of 2012 will see tablet sales improve on the previous quarter. The company said during its call with investors that it sees itself moving 2.6 million tablets in the fourth quarter of this year.

If Asus performs to expectations it will have increased tablet sales by 13 per cent on a quarter-by-quarter basis.