Asustek Computer has scored points in tapping Spain and Portugal and aims to hike its market share for notebooks and tablets in the markets from the sixth largest currently to the third largest in 2013, according to the company's Spain and Portugal general manager Wu Quo-hui.

Samsung Electronics and Apple are the two largest vendors of notebooks and tablets in Spain and Portugal currently, followed by three local white-box vendors, Wu indicated. For the Spain-Portugal tablet market in particular, local white-box vendors occupy 60% and international vendors 40%, and models priced at below EUR199 (US$262) account for 30% of sales, Wu pointed out.

By launching the 7-inch Nexus 7 at EUR249, MiMO Pad at EUR169, 7-inch Fonepad at EUR219 and 10-inch convertible models, Asustek expects to become the third-largest tablet vendor in the Spain-Portugal market in 2013, Wu said.

There were 1.8 million notebooks shipped in Spain and 600,000 units in Portugal in 2012, and Asustek ranked second in the former, next only to Hewlett-Packard, and first in the latter in terms of shipments, Wu indicated. While many vendors no longer launch netbooks, Asustek has seen better-than-expected sales of its Eee PCs priced at EUR249 in the Spain-Portugal market, Wu said.

In related news, Asustek unveiled the PadFone Infinity, a 5-inch smartphone which can docked into a 10.1-inch tablet and supports LTE as standard, at the 2013 Mobile World Congress taking place in Barcelona, Spain, and has formed a strategic alliance with China Unicom which will offer high subsidies for contract bundled sales of the device.