Asus is ready to launch a Windows Phone 7 device as soon as it thinks the time is right, the company has told Pocket-lint. 

"We are very close with Microsoft. When we think it is the right time of course we will do it," Benson Lin, the global head of Asus' handheld division, told us in a one-to-one interview at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. 

So far, the company has only focused on Android tablets and phones, but that could change. Lin already carries a Windows Phone device, from HTC, in his pocket and was keen to show us. 

"In my pocket, I always carry two competitor products. At the moment I have a HTC Titan and a Galaxy Nexus," he said.

Lin does so to remind him of what the competition is offering, and that his products are just as good:

"All of our spec, panel, storage, even design we can compete. I think we are strong to be able to compete in the market, and we have something different, we have the PadStation."

The PadStation is for the company's newly announced Padfone, an Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich device which is centre of the company's focus right now.  

"In the beginning our strategy is to focus and focus and focus," insisted Lin, suggesting that those holding out for a Windows Phone handset shouldn't hold their breath. "When the time comes we will do it," Lin added. 

If you thought that Asus already made a Windows Phone you would be forgiven. The company built the Microsoft preview handset for developers to test apps on before Windows Phone 7 launched in 2010. But since then, the internet has been awash with rumours of a leaked handset doing the rounds which. if you believe the rumours, will be launched at some point in the past, the present, or the future.

Lin wouldn't expand further on the conservation, switching back instead to talking about the company's big MWC announcement, the Padfone.