Notebook computer vendors expect to cash in on the annual IT Month electronics exposition which started Saturday, with unit sales expected to to double on the same period last year due to an improved economic outlook and big discounts, company officials said yesterday.
"The first deal was done on Saturday morning, which is supposed to be a slack time, because most consumers prefer to place orders on the last two days of the show in the hope of a steeper price cut," an Asustek Computer Inc (
Asustek, Taiwan's No.1 laptop vendor in terms of unit sales, sold 500 laptops on the first day, a nearly 43 percent surge from the 350 units recorded last year.
He attributed the surge in IT spending to a better economic outlook and steep price cuts, announced even before the opening of the show.
"We believe the momentum will carry through the following days," he said. Asustek hopes to sell 20,000 laptops at this year's show, up from 10,000 units last year.
Unit sales are expected to continue to rise 10 to 20 percent to about 600 units on the second day of the computer show, said Kevin Lin (
The computer trade show attracted about 65,000 visitors on the first day, according to estimates of the show's organizer, the Taipei Computer Association (TCA, 台北市電腦公會). The association predicted the number of visitors would rise to around 750,000 during the nine-day show, up from 700,000 last year, but due to an hourly 25,000 limitation on visitors due to safety concerns, TCA said a visitor count for the second day would not reflect the true interest in the show.
The US' IBM Corp and Taiwan's Elitegroup Computer Systems Co (ECS,
"Our first day unit sales grew at about 10 percent from last year and sales will continue to grow at least 20 percent today [Sunday], thanks to the improved economy," said Hank Horng (
A representative at Elitegroup's booth -- participating in the annual event for the first time -- said the first day sales were unexpectedly strong.
Big discounts and a major change in people's purchasing habits triggered the buying spree, the unnamed employee said.
"Consumers have changed a lot recently. Most people tend to choose laptops, rather than desktops, for their first personal computer," he explained.
"This trend is in line with the gradual replacement of desktops with laptops," he added.
Elitegroup offered about NT$4,000 in average price cuts. Acer Inc, the most-well-known local PC brand in the world, has offered discounts of between NT$3,000 and NT$6,000.
Despite the sharp price cuts, some consumers are still keeping their buying on hold in anticipation of better bargain prices before the show's conclusion on Nov. 9 in Taipei's World Trade Center.
"I'm here just to check prices. I won't buy anything today. But, I'll come back on the last day because they always offer the best prices at that time," said a young college student surnamed Yang, who plans to buy a new laptop and a digital camera.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in