Asus

Asus
Information
Type	Public
Industry	Consumer electronics, computer hardware
Founded	April 2, 1989
Founder	Ted Hsu, M. T. Liao, Wayne Hsieh, T. H. Tung
Headquarters	Beitou District, Taipei, Taiwan
Notable Personnel	Jonney Shih (Chairman)
Products	Motherboards, laptops, smartphones, graphics cards, AR glasses, VR headsets
Website	https://www.asus.com

Asus (stylized ASUS; legally ASUSTeK Computer Inc.) is a Taiwanese multinational computer and consumer electronics company headquartered in the Beitou District of Taipei. It was founded on April 2, 1989 by four former Acer engineers, Ted Hsu, M. T. Liao, Wayne Hsieh and T. H. Tung, and is publicly traded on the Taiwan Stock Exchange under ticker 2357. The company name is taken from the last four letters of Pegasus, the winged horse of Greek mythology. Asus began as a motherboard manufacturer and grew into one of the world's largest makers of motherboards, laptops, graphics cards and gaming hardware, with reported revenue of NT$537.2 billion in 2022.

Within Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, Asus has been an intermittent participant rather than a core platform holder. Its hardware in the field spans three distinct products across three different eras: the ZenFone AR smartphone (2017), the Windows Mixed Reality headset HC102 (2018), and the AirVision M1 wearable display glasses (announced 2024, released 2025).

History

Asus was established in 1989 by a group of engineers who had left Acer, initially to design and sell PC motherboards. Through the 1990s and 2000s it expanded into a full range of computing products. In 2006 it created the Republic of Gamers (ROG) brand for high-performance gaming systems, launching the G1 and G2 gaming notebooks in 2007. Also in 2007 it introduced the Eee PC, a low-cost compact laptop widely credited with defining the netbook category, which shipped more than 300,000 units in 2007. The 2010s brought further diversification, including the ZenFone smartphone line, which became the vehicle for the company's first foray into consumer AR.

Asus has approached spatial computing opportunistically, building hardware around platforms led by larger partners such as Google and Microsoft rather than creating its own VR or AR operating system. Each of its three XR-adjacent products targeted a different use case: mobile AR and VR, room-scale Mixed Reality, and a wearable virtual monitor.

VR and AR products

ZenFone AR (2017)

The ZenFone AR was unveiled on January 4, 2017 at CES 2017 in Las Vegas. Asus positioned it as the first smartphone to be both Google Tango enabled and Google Daydream ready, combining markerless augmented reality with mobile virtual reality in a single device. It ran on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 with an Adreno 530 GPU and up to 8 GB of RAM, paired with a 5.7-inch AMOLED display at 1440x2560 resolution. Its defining feature was a rear "TriCam" array: a 23-megapixel Sony IMX318 main sensor plus a motion-tracking camera and a depth-sensing camera, which together allowed the phone to map and understand 3D space for Tango AR applications. The phone later went on sale in the United States as a Verizon exclusive in August 2017. Google announced that Tango would shut down on March 1, 2018, ending software support for the platform that the ZenFone AR had been built around.

Windows Mixed Reality headset HC102 (2018)

The HC102 was Asus's entry in Microsoft's Windows Mixed Reality headset program, a wave of PC-tethered headsets from several manufacturers that shared a common platform and used inside-out tracking. Shown at CES in January 2018, it was formally announced and went on sale in February 2018 at a price of 429 US dollars. The headset offered a combined 2880x1440 resolution (1440x1440 per eye), a 90 Hz refresh rate and a 105-degree field of view. Like other Windows Mixed Reality devices it provided six degrees of freedom through two front-facing cameras using inside-out tracking, so it needed no external base stations, and it shipped with two motion controllers. Connectivity was via HDMI 2.0 and USB 3.0, and the headset included a 3.5 mm audio jack. Through the Windows Mixed Reality platform it could run Microsoft's own apps as well as SteamVR titles. Asus distinguished the HC102 mainly through its angular industrial design rather than novel optics.

AirVision M1 (2024)

The AirVision M1 is a pair of tethered wearable display glasses first shown at CES 2024 in January 2024 and released on January 15, 2025 at a price of 699 US dollars. Unlike full Augmented Reality headsets such as the Apple Vision Pro, the AirVision M1 is designed primarily to act as a portable virtual monitor: it has no interactive AR, hand tracking or eye tracking, and instead projects one or more large floating screens in front of the wearer. It uses Sony Micro-OLED panels with 1920x1080 resolution per eye, a 72 Hz refresh rate, 1,100 nits of brightness and 95 percent DCI-P3 color coverage, and weighs about 87 grams. The glasses connect over a single USB-C cable using DisplayPort Alt Mode and work with devices that support video over USB-C, including laptops, smartphones and handheld gaming PCs such as the Asus ROG Ally. A multi-function touchpad on the left temple controls playback, brightness and the arrangement of virtual screens, and the glasses use native 3DoF head tracking to pin multiple windows in space. Reviews were broadly negative, with critics finding the product competent but heavily overpriced relative to rival display glasses; Tom's Hardware called it "an expensive and shaky first effort" and Windows Central questioned why it cost 700 US dollars.

Products

Product	Year	Type	Notable specs and notes
ZenFone AR	2017	AR/VR smartphone	Announced January 4, 2017 at CES; first phone to be both Google Tango enabled and Daydream ready; Snapdragon 821, up to 8 GB RAM, 5.7-inch 1440x2560 AMOLED; rear TriCam with motion-tracking and depth-sensing cameras
Windows Mixed Reality headset HC102	2018	PC mixed reality headset	Announced and released February 2018; 429 US dollars; 1440x1440 per eye at 90 Hz; 105-degree FOV; 6DoF inside-out tracking; two motion controllers; HDMI 2.0 / USB 3.0
AirVision M1	2024 (announced), 2025 (released)	Tethered display glasses	Shown at CES 2024, released January 15, 2025; 699 US dollars; Sony Micro-OLED 1920x1080 per eye at 72 Hz; 1,100 nits; ~87 g; USB-C DisplayPort; 3DoF; no interactive AR

Market position

Asus is a significant force in personal computing hardware but a minor and inconsistent player in dedicated VR and AR devices. Its three XR-adjacent products each appeared near the start of a hardware wave (mobile Tango/Daydream phones, Windows Mixed Reality headsets, and display glasses) and each leaned on a partner platform rather than an Asus ecosystem. The ZenFone AR and HC102 were both eventually overtaken when their underlying platforms wound down, and the AirVision M1 entered an already crowded market of tethered display glasses dominated by brands such as Xreal. As of 2026 the AirVision M1 is the company's only current VR or AR product.