Compal Electronics Inc (
"We achieved outstanding re-sults last year and are gearing up to become the top notebook computer maker in the world," Compal president and CEO Ray Chen (陳瑞聰), said at the company's annual dance-and-dinner party on Saturday.
Last year, Compal produced a total of 14.6 million notebook computers, demonstrating a growth rate of nearly 50 percent over 9.8 million shipped a year ago, the company's statistics showed.
Total shipments this year are estimated to expand 37 percent to over 20 million units, Chen said.
The race between the world's top-two makers is a close one, as Quanta shipped 19 million last year, slightly up from 18 million a year ago.
It aims to ship 25 million units by year's end.
Compal will continue to diversify into other product segments such as digital media and automotive electronics, in a bid to reduce dependence on the notebook computer productions, whose shrinking margins account for 90 percent of Compal's sales, Chen said.
The firm has said it expected non-laptop sales to account for 20 percent of total sales by next year.
However, industry watchers are skeptical of Compal's ability to post high earnings as losses by its affiliates continue.
"Losses of TPO Displays Corp and Vibo Telecom Inc (
However, Lin forecast that Compal's laptop shipments would increase at least 30 percent because of orders from Acer Inc and Hewlett-Packard Co.
TPO Displays, the world's second-largest maker of handset displays, was formed last June after Toppoly Optoelectronics Corp (
Compal also has a 29 percent stake in Vibo, the nation's leading third-generation telecom operator, which is not expected to go in the black until the first quarter of next year.
Echoing Lin's comments, Macquarie Research Equities analyst Daniel Chang (張博淇) wrote in a report on Friday that losses of these two affiliates would continue to disappoint investors.
"Our recent figures suggest that both Vibo and TPO Displays will erode nearly NT$2 billion [US$60.96 million] in investment for Compal, which is almost 18 percent of its earnings this year," he said.
Investors would remain pessimistic until Compal showed clear signs of investment recovery or the company managed to reduce its investment ties to the two companies, he said.
However, Rock Hsu (
"This will be the year for both firms to hit rock-bottom [and rebound the following year]," he said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six