ASUSTeK CEO Jerry Shen announced that his company in March is launching a $399 10-inch tablet running on Google's Android OS. The tablet will likely run Android 3.0 "Gingerbread" that is expected to be released in March 2011.

Currently ASUSTeK has 800 software engineers working with Android, so it has a great deal of experience with the OS.  Most of those engineers currently work in the smartphone division, but ASUS is working to shuffle resources to prepare the new device.

While the naming of that tablet remains up in the air, ASUS did announce a name for a more pricey upcoming tablet.

In December ASUS will ship the Eee Pad 121 (EP121, for short) a $1,000 monster powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo processor.  The super tablet features a 12-inch touchscreen and is driven by Microsoft's Windows 7 Home Premium operating system.  The approach is radically different than Apple's best-selling iPad, which features lower-end processing hardware and retails for $499 in base form.

Shen comments, "If you want to compete with the iPad, you have to do more than just be less expensive.  You have to offer more features. We want to spend more time perfecting the [Eee Pad] before we launch. We're looking more at Q1 to launch the devices."

Another 10-inch tablet (not the Android one) is also incoming, utilizing an ARM processor and Microsoft's Windows Embedded Compact 7 software.  This model should be closer to Apple's iPad in terms of form factor and will also come at a similar price -- between $399 USD and $499 USD.

The company also announced plans to unleash a grayscale 8-inch e-reader, priced at under $300.  That device, dubbed the Eee Tablet, will ship in October.