A few days ago we brought you the news that Asus were lining up a “secret weapon” to counter the release of Apple’s iPad 2.

Rumour has it that this secret weapon will be Asus’ first 3D tablet.

Asustek chairman Jonny Shih played his cards close to his chest when speaking of his company’s plans for the coming year, and remained guarded about the “secret weapon”. The only thing he let slip was that more information will be revealed closer to the launch time.

However, some of Shih’s comments have aroused the attention of internet speculators who have been wracking their brains in an attempt to second guess the chairman.

For example, Shih was very careful to highlight the Nvidia Tegra 2 processor powering the tablets revealed at CES, leading many to believe that a Tegra 2.5 chip might feature in the new device. The Tegra 2.5 supports 3D graphics.

Shih went on to talk about his belief that 3D glasses will fall away this year stating that “[3D] may be possible on smaller tablets without wearing glasses”. This could be a hint that this is something Asustek have been working on.

It is not yet known whether the “secret weapon” will precede the launch of iPad 2 or whether Asus will drop the device in the wake of Apple’s big release. In the meantime, rumours continue to grow as to what form this “secret weapon” will take.

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As tablet manufacturers ready their challenges to Apple’s dominance of the market, Asustek claim they have a “secret weapon” that will combat the iPad 2 on release.

Asustek have already launched four new tablets – the Eee Pad Transformer, MeMO and Slider and the Eee Slate – but have vowed that this is only the beginning of their challenge on the tablet market.

When questioned on whether the release of the iPad 2 will render these releases obsolete, Asustek chairman, Jonney Shih was understandably bullish:

“We already know some of the details of that device, such as what kind of processor they chose.” He replied. “We very carefully chose our tablet processor, the Nvidia Tegra 2. To really compete with it will take Apple sometime. You know, Nvidia is well known for graphics.”

Shih continued, bringing up Asustek’s contingency plan for 2011; a secret weapon to challenge iPad 2s dominance.

“We will also try to provide a “secret weapon”, something we have not shown at this time but closer to the launch time we will show,” elaborated Shih, cryptically.

Shih refused to be pinned down as to whether the “secret weapon” would be a new component or a new tablet, and instead diverted to talking about the importance that personal cloud computing will have in 2011, possibly hinting that this was an area Asustek would be developing this year.

As for the secret weapon, we may have to wait till later on this quarter before Asustek let slip any more information.

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