Asustek Computer has already successfully designed a $199 media tablet together with Google and Nvidia Corp. However, in a bid to sell more tablets in 2013, the company needs even lower price-points. To design media tablets that will cost from $99 to $149, the company has reportedly teamed up with Via Technologies and plans to adopt its chips for such products.

Next year Asustek intends to sell 12 million of media tablets worldwide, according to market sources cited by China Economic News Service. While Google Nexus 7 as well as Asus-branded Transformer tablets should probably help the company to achieve that goal, to guarantee its success on the market of slates and possible sell even more devices, the company has teamed up with Via Technologies, who has the vast experience in development of low-cost solutions.

Together with Via Technologies, Asus plans to develop low-cost 7” slate for sale exclusively in China. The media tablet will adopt a Via system-on-chip with ARM Cortex-A9 general-purpose processing core and will be retailed for $99 - $149 starting in the Lunar New Year season in China in 2013. Wistron Corp., a contract maker of electronics, will be manufacturing the devices starting this month. Initial shipment will reach 2-3 million units, according to CENS.

Based on global sales of Nexus 7 to reach 7 - 8 million units in 2013, market observers indicated that Asustek will have to ship 4 million units more of other models by itself to achieve the said shipment goal. Therefore, adding a low-cost model or two absolutely makes sense for the company.

Asus and Via Technologies did not comment on the news-story.

Tags: ASUS, Via Technologies, Google, ARM, Cortex, Nexus, Android, Transformer