There is also an important wrinkle in the question: ASUS did not stop making tablets forever. On June 2, 2026, the company announced the Android-based ASUS Pad, explicitly describing it as a return to the category after several years. The story is therefore about why ASUS withdrew from its earlier tablet business—and what that withdrawal actually meant.
What ASUS reportedly stopped in 2019
On April 19, 2019, Gizmochina reported, citing Taiwanese technology publication ePrice, that ASUS had informed distributors it would no longer update the ZenPad series. That is the clearest contemporary account of the decision, but it remains reporting about communications with distributors, rather than a public ASUS declaration promising a permanent tablet exit.
Gizmochina placed the retreat against weakening tablet demand, competition from increasingly large smartphones, and ASUS’s absence from the five largest tablet manufacturers. Those circumstances make a commercial explanation plausible: a smaller participant had less reason to keep investing in a challenging category. They do not prove which factor ultimately tipped the decision.
The distinction matters. “ASUS reportedly ended ZenPad development” describes an identifiable product-line decision. “ASUS gave up on every kind of tablet” turns that decision into something much broader.
The strategy change was real—but concerned phones
The strongest independent evidence comes from ASUS’s own corporate records. Its annual-report material records that, on December 13, 2018, the board approved:
- The appointment of co-CEOs.
- A strategic transformation plan for the mobile-phone business.
- A new strategic business investment plan covering artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things.
That establishes a concrete restructuring timeline before the reported ZenPad withdrawal. It does not establish that the board resolution specifically cancelled tablets, or that investment in AI directly displaced ZenPad funding.
BGR’s retrospective connects the tablet retreat with ASUS’s effort to concentrate its phone portfolio around Zenfone power users and ROG Phone gamers. Taken together with the corporate record, the reasonable interpretation is that ASUS was becoming more selective about mobile products—not simply running out of interesting hardware ideas.
The likely reason was portfolio prioritization: an increasingly difficult tablet business looked less attractive while management was already reorganizing its mobile operations. That is an evidence-based interpretation, not a disclosed ASUS explanation of tablet profitability.
Transformer history needs an Android–Windows distinction
The early hardware deserves a naming correction. ASUS’s March 25, 2011 launch announcement called its Android 3.0 device the Eee Pad Transformer, not the “Eee Pad Transformer Book.” That announcement described an NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor and an optional keyboard dock—an ambitious attempt to bridge entertainment and mobile productivity.
For Windows readers, the later Transformer Book products were a different proposition. ASUS’s own product material documents the Transformer Book T100 with an Intel Atom processor, Windows 8.1, a detachable keyboard and Microsoft Office. Its tablet shape did not make it equivalent to a ZenPad running Android.
That is the useful technical boundary in this story: a form factor is not an operating system or a business segment. Ending an Android tablet line does not, by itself, demonstrate a withdrawal from Windows detachable PCs.
BGR also points to ASUS’s phone-tablet hybrids, mixed Android/Windows experiments and Intel-based Android devices as part of its unsettled mobile history. These illustrate the breadth of its experimentation. Without a documented causal link, however, they should not be promoted into a definitive explanation for the ZenPad decision. Unusual products can explain the journey without explaining the balance sheet.
The 2026 epilogue changes the answer
The later phone story needs similar care. Ars Technica reported on January 19, 2026 that chairman Jonney Shih had confirmed a wind-down of new smartphone development, with attention shifting toward AI products. Its characterization was an indefinite hiatus, which is more cautious than declaring that ASUS could never make another Android phone.
Then came the tablet return.
ASUS’s June 2 announcement identifies the new ASUS Pad T3201 as an Android 16 tablet with a 12.2-inch OLED display, a MediaTek Dimensity 8300 processor and ASUS GlideX cross-device features. This is a documented new product announcement, not merely a rumor that the company might reconsider tablets.
Those specifications also establish a practical boundary: the returning ASUS Pad is an Android device, not a revival of the Windows-based Transformer Book platform. A familiar manufacturer—and even a keyboard-friendly design—does not make two devices interchangeable for software requirements.
The bottom line
The most defensible answer is that ASUS reportedly ended its ZenPad program in 2019 because the business appeared less compelling amid difficult market conditions and a broader mobile restructuring. Competition and large-screen phones were plausible pressures, but the evidence does not identify one official, decisive cause.
The 2026 ASUS Pad announcement closes the loop: ASUS’s earlier withdrawal was not permanent. The company stepped away from one tablet chapter and later opened another—proof that a product-line obituary should always leave room for a sequel.