The short supply of Intel Corp's central processing unit (CPU) chipsets for portable computers could trim shipments of Taiwanese branded notebook vendors this year, an industry watcher said yesterday.
"There is a shortage of Intel's mobile CPU chipsets for notebooks, with a gap of over 20 percent in meeting market demand," Simon Yang (楊勝帆), a senior researcher at the Topology Research Institute (拓墣產業研究所), said in a phone interview yesterday.
Yang said the CPU shortage has resulted from robust sales of laptops in the fourth quarter, which exceeded Intel's original expectations. Intel's products power over 90 percent of laptops worldwide.
In the third quarter, Intel reportedly cut prices of its processors used in desktop computers by as much as 35 percent to help reduce inventory and stimulate buying before students returned to school in September.
But the chip giant turned conservative on the market for the last quarter, due to slow after-school sales late in the third quarter, Yang said.
The global laptop market has grown by about 17 percent so far in the fourth quarter from the previous quarter, and Taiwan's notebook market growth jumped by 30 percent over the same time, according to statistics by the Taipei-based research house.
Compared to global laptop brands, smaller local vendors, including Acer Inc and Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which have less leverage to secure sustained chipset supply amid jitters over a deficiency in key components, are likely to see annual shipments slide by around 10 percent, Yang said.
Acer, the No. 5 player in the sector worldwide, originally hoped to ship 3.2 million notebooks this year, while Asustek, whose own-brand products make up half of its annual laptop shipment, expected to deliver around 2.8 million units, according to Topology.
Acer's president Wang Jen-tang (王振堂) told investors earlier this month that Intel's shortage could cast a shadow over the company's brisk sales in the quarter ending December.
Smaller rival Asustek, however, did not seem to be bothered by the problem.
"As we have a smaller branded laptop shipment, the shortage is not expected to affect us," said David Chang (
The company's delivery of contract-manufactured products would remain intact, as the issue will not impact clients, such as Apple Computer Inc, Chang said.
In spite of Asustek's optimism, the short supply of CPU chipsets could trim the nation's total laptop shipment for this year to 31 million units from the previous forecast of 32.4 million, Yang said.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
RSS