Compared with that in previous decades, bronchial asthma today is generally better controlled. However, there are still patients who have daytime and nocturnal symptoms, and asthma exacerbations. This suboptimal asthma control is often accepted as inevitable. The challenge into the future will be for patients and providers to work on the understanding that total control is possible, at least for the great majority. The unsatisfactory asthma treatment that used to be based on severity classification of disease has been resolved in the 2006 GINA Guidelines. It introduced new concept of ‘asthma control’.