The Taiwanese manufacturer ASUS has decided to put a indefinite halt to its smartphone launchesThis applies to both the generalist Zenfone range and the gaming-focused ROG Phone line. The company acknowledges that, for now, it's not worthwhile to continue investing in new models in such a competitive market, although current users won't be left without options.
The firm has reported that There will be no new ASUS phones in the short or medium term.However, it will maintain technical support, warranties, and software updates for devices already in consumers' hands. This move doesn't completely close the door on the mobile business, but in practice, it puts the division into a sort of hibernation.
An official announcement that freezes Zenfone and ROG Phone
The strategic shift has been made public in various corporate events held in Taipei, such as the 2025 New Year's Eve Party, where the company's president, Jonney Shih, confirmed that ASUS It has no plans to launch new smartphone modelsManagement speaks of an "indefinite observation" phase of the mobile market, but without a concrete roadmap for resuming launches.
According to Asian media such as Inside and specialist publications like Android Headlines, distributors are already working with the understanding that They shouldn't expect new Zenfone or ROG Phones throughout 2026.Models that were practically considered a sure thing, such as a hypothetical ROG Phone 10, have been ruled out and the current product lines are considered closed.
In practice, this means that the Zenfone 12 Ultra and the ROG Phone 9 FEThe two phones, released in 2025, will be remembered as the brand's last smartphones, at least for a while. Both launched with a very limited presence in key markets, without a massive rollout in regions like the United States or much of Europe, which already foreshadowed that ASUS's mobile strategy was losing momentum.
The company admits that maintaining its own smartphone division implies investments that are very difficult to justify: development of advanced cameras, service integration, differentiated software layers, and a constant pace of renewal, all in an environment where margins have shrunk to the extreme. ASUS had been losing visibility in the mobile phone market for years, with fewer releases and a smaller distribution in Western markets.
The latest news, such as the update to Android 16 for the Zenfone 12 Ultra The reports received in November demonstrate that the company was still striving to maintain a competitive product. However, the complete absence of plans for 2026 and the lack of a clear outlook for 2027 paint a picture in which the "pause" looks more like a quiet retreat than a simple rest.
Active support, but no new mobile revenue
Following this move, ASUS's presence in the mobile phone sector is limited to manage the installed base of devicesThe company promises to continue “taking care” of its mobile phone users, which includes technical support, repairs, software updates, and maintaining existing warranties.
This phase could be described as a transition to a support-focused brand more so than in the launch of new devices. However, maintaining service structures, software development teams, and repair networks is crucial. without the push of new models This represents a cost that the company will have to amortize in another way, something that in the medium term usually ends in deep restructurings, sale of assets or definitive closure of the activity.
In the mobile gaming segment, ASUS's departure has a particular impact. The ROG Phone range had established itself as a benchmark in performance, cooling and gaming featuresCompeting with offerings from brands like RedMagic. With the withdrawal of one of the few manufacturers that maintained a strong commitment to this niche, the catalog for those looking for a mobile phone fully geared towards gaming becomes even more limited.
Another group particularly affected is that of users who prefer high-end compact phonesThe Zenfone family was one of the few that continued to offer powerful models in more manageable formats, as was the case with models like Fonepad 7 LTESomething that is becoming increasingly difficult to find in Europe outside of the most expensive Apple or Samsung ranges. Without that alternative, the range of options narrows and the market becomes somewhat more homogeneous.
Current ASUS devices will have to to compete in the coming months with new generations of processors and camera improvements from other manufacturers, which will accelerate its technological obsolescence. Without a successor on the horizon, buying a Zenfone or a ROG Phone now becomes a very specific decision, geared more towards those who prioritize certain very specific features and accept the lack of a replacement.
A saturated mobile market dominated by giants
The overall context doesn't help either. The smartphone market has been in a phase of [unclear - possibly "a state of flux"] for years. very advanced maturity, with flat sales and fierce competitionThe world's top three —Apple, Samsung and Xiaomi— concentrate a large part of the demand, with market shares that together account for more than half of global shipments and still positive annual growth.
For manufacturers with a more discreet presence, such as ASUS, carve out a sustainable niche Facing these giants and the push from many Chinese brands is becoming increasingly difficult. The costs of components like DRAM and NAND memory have risen, partly because The industry prioritizes production aimed at artificial intelligence.This directly impacts the price of each new mobile phone and the profit margin for the manufacturer, as shown in our analysis of the Price increases due to memory and AI.
ASUS had already experienced serious turbulence in the mobile phone market. At the end of 2018, the company carried out a major adjustment in its mobile business, registering an extraordinary charge of more than 62.000 billion Taiwanese dollars linked to that activity, which brought annual profits to their lowest level since 2009. Far from leaving the sector then, it chose to concentrate on high-end models such as the more complete Zenfone and the ROG Phone geared towards video games.
Entering the booming smartphone market in the early 2000s allowed ASUS to gain strength in regions such as Southeast Asiawhere the brand became quite well-known. Over time, increased competition from China, with manufacturers able to undercut prices, eroded its position until the business became difficult to maintain with reasonable profitability.
In recent years, the company's release rate has been slowing down. In 2025, for example, Only two smartphones were presented Globally, the Zenfone 12 Ultra and the ROG Phone 9 FE were among the notable examples. Both received a lukewarm reception and had very limited distribution in Europe, despite their advanced specifications. The combination of moderate sales and rising costs ultimately tipped the scales toward a retreat.
ASUS redirects its resources to PCs, AI servers, robotics, and smart glasses
The disappearance of new ASUS phones does not mean that the company is going to slow down its technological activity, but rather that repositions its chips in other segments with more potential. Jonney Shih himself has explained that the R&D resources previously dedicated to smartphones will now be used to strengthen the commercial computers and, above all, the hardware linked to artificial intelligence.
Within this strategy, the company refers to what it calls "physical AI": robots, smart devices, connected glasses and other devices capable of interacting with the real-world environment autonomously or semi-autonomously. The idea is to leverage ASUS's expertise in high-performance platforms—motherboards, graphics cards, servers, and workstations—to scale toward solutions that combine hardware and AI algorithms.
In recent exercises, the ASUS's AI server business has grown stronglydoubling revenue according to internal company data. This is in addition to the strong performance of the business PC division, focused on companies and professionals, areas in which the Taiwanese brand maintains a solid presence both in Europe and in other international markets.
The company closed its last fiscal year with a turnover of approximately 738.910 billion Taiwanese dollars, some 19.950 billion euros, which translates into year-on-year growth of over 26%. These results reinforce the thesis that the AI hardware and the corporate environment They offer more opportunities than an increasingly saturated mobile phone market with shrinking margins.
Beyond servers, ASUS is using showcases such as the CES 2026 trade show to reinforce its image as a manufacturer of advanced products with integrated AI. Among the recent innovations, several stand out. laptops focused on artificial intelligence featuresas well as the ROG Zephyrus Duo 2026, presented as one of the first gaming laptops with dual OLED screens, and a limited edition ROG Flow Z13-KJP in collaboration with the creative Hideo Kojima.
Another focus for the future is that of the Smart glasses and consumer roboticsAt CES, the company showcased the ROG XREAL R1 gaming headset, designed to enhance the gaming experience with mixed reality features. This line aligns with the company's strategy of creating devices that combine computing power, sensors, and AI algorithms to deliver immersive experiences beyond mobile gaming.
A legacy on hold and a gap in the European market
Although the company avoids talking about a definitive abandonment, the message coming from its top management makes it clear that Zenfone and ROG Phone are frozenThese are two product lines that, while not bestsellers, had achieved significant recognition among enthusiastic users, especially those interested in mobile gaming or compact mobile phones with high-end features.
In Europe, where the brand had an irregular presence but was valued by a loyal niche of users, the disappearance of new ASUS references This further reduces the diversity of the product catalog. Operators and specialized stores will be left only with the available stock, which will be the last to receive official hardware support, with no replacement to fill that gap with similar offerings.
ASUS's move adds to other cases of manufacturers who, in recent years, have opted to withdraw from segments that were not profitable or by focusing on very specific product lines. The difference here is that the company has not, for now, proposed an alternative strategy in telephony, such as licensing the brand or focusing on a single model per year, but has instead opted for a complete halt to new releases.
Meanwhile, the European smartphone market will continue to be dominated by the usual players, with annual refresh cycles and increasingly aggressive investments in AI integration for cameras, batteries, and cloud services. ASUS prefers to compete precisely on the other side of that equation: in the the infrastructure and hardware that makes that artificial intelligence possibleboth in data centers and on personal devices.
With this change of direction, the Taiwanese company is shelving a mobility venture that began in the early 2000s and enjoyed periods of high visibility, but never managed to establish itself as a key business line. The combination of tight margins, rising costs, and rampant competition This has ultimately pushed ASUS to prioritize the segments where it sees more room for maneuver and growth, leaving its smartphones in the background and shifting the focus to PCs, AI servers, and the new smart devices it wants to put at the center of its strategy.
