Let's get one thing straight right off the bat; the Garmin Asus Nuvifone was not a bad smartphone. It was a decent smartphone that came out in the U.S. 18 months too late. If it had been released much earlier, it would've had some impressive features. As it happened, the Nuvifone ended up going against the 3GS and the Pre and a whole bunch of other smartphones that beat the hell out of it in every conceivable category.

Now then. With that out of the way, we'll turn to the spectre of Asus' mythical Android smartphone. According to chairman Jonney Shih (Digitimes) an Asustek Android smartphone will be revealed before the end of 2009. This news should be taken with a big, heaping grain of salt. We still have yet to see even the faintest glimmer of an Asus Android smartphone in the offing.

I really hope Shih is correct in his assertion. I'd like nothing more than to be surprised by a brilliant, high-end (snapdragon sporting) Android phone with an Asus sticker on the back. Asus is one of the best device manufacturers on the planet, and they're certainly capable of hitting this one out of the park. The question is, will they? Or will we be stuck with another phone that would've been great if it had come out a year before?