Hewlett-Packard Co, the world's biggest personal computer maker, said yesterday notebook computer shipments would outgrow the overall market's 28 percent annual expansion this year, shrugging off a potential impact on demand from the US subprime credit turmoil.
"We tend to take IDC [market researcher projections] as a fact. Some macroeconomic [factors] may change things, but overall we continue to see the growing market," Ted Clark, a senior vice president of HP's notebook global business unit, told a press briefing in Taipei.
IDC said world laptop computer shipments would grow 28 percent year-on-year this year on strong demand, Clark said.
PHOTO: AFP
HP expects its growth will outpace that of the overall industry, Clark said. Latin America will grow fastest and the Asia-Pacific region will come second, with a narrow margin, he said.
"HP's notebook growth is on plan," Clark said.
The company's laptop business does not foresee cutback on orders, he said in response to a media inquiry regarding speculation in a Goldman, Sachs & Co report last week that orders for local desktop computer makers could slow down during the fourth quarter.
HP's Taiwanese suppliers include Quanta Computer Inc (
Clark was in Taipei yesterday to attend the 5th anniversary celebrations of HP's Product Development Center in Taiwan. Aside from Taiwan's facilities, the Palo Alto, California-based company has three other product design centers in China, Germany and the US for its notebook computer business.
HP said yesterday the company would double its workforce at the product design center in Taiwan to 600 people by the end of next year, with 90 percent of new employees hired locally.
The facilities, established in September 2002, primarily develop products for the global market and collaborate with local partners in product design and delivery.
Over the past five years, more than 50 notebook platforms were launched, with more than 100 derivatives, in the global market, the company said.
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
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
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure