Fujitsu Taiwan shifting focus to consumer laptops

With an eye to doubling its laptop sales to Taiwan this year, Fujitsu Taiwan Ltd is planning to introduce a slew of notebooks that cater to the mainstream market, a company executive said yesterday.

"We have drawn up a product and pricing strategy to boost our shipments this year," Frank Hsieh (謝秀逸), product manager of Fujitsu Taiwan, told reporters on the sidelines of a product launch.

The company sold only around 7,000 portable computers last year, accounting for less than 1 percent of the domestic market, he said.

But it aims to more than double sales to 17,000 units this year for a market share of 2 percent, he added.

The company, which used to focus on supplying premium laptops for corporate customers, is diversifying its offerings this year to target mainstream consumers.

At least three new lower-priced notebooks will hit local stores this year, lowering Fujitsu's average selling prices to below NT$50,000 (US$1,520), from between NT$50,000 to NT$60,000 in the past, Hsieh said.

One the new models would come with a 3.5-generation module to cater to the booming telecom service here, he added.

Fujitsu launched its LifeBook P7230, an ultra-mobile laptop designed for frequent travelers and mobile workers.

With a screen size of 10.6 inches, it weighs only about 1.33kg, has 1GB of memory and 80GB of storage. It also comes with a built-in optical disk drive, a camera and a six-hour battery pack.

The domestic notebook market is expected to grow to 890,000 units from 790,000 units last year, thanks to the upcoming debut of Microsoft's Vista operating system, market researcher International Data Corp said.

Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) and Acer Inc dominate the local laptop market, with the US' Hewlett-Packard Co ranking third.