PC vendors seek boost from IT Month

Major PC vendors such as Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) said they were confident that sales at the nation's annual year-end electronics fair, IT Month, would continue the trend of increasing by approximately 30 percent year-on-year.

Vendors said this would help to compensate for sluggish laptop computer sales in the first half of the year, a phenomenon market researcher International Data Corp (IDC) attributed to consumers having adopted a wait-and-see attitude to Microsoft Corp's Vista operating system.

Laptop computers usually sell quickly at the IT Month show, which is organized by the Taipei Computer Association (台北市電腦公會).

"Almost all models showcased here [come with Vista preinstalled]," Kevin Lin (林福能), a vice president of Asustek's sales department, said yesterday. "We are seeing strong purchases this year and we believe we will reach our target."

In just two days, Asustek had already sold products worth more than NT$100 million, Lin said. Asustek is targeting NT$400 million in sales during the nine-day show.

Vista

Dennis Chen (陳敬宏), general manager of Hewlett Packard Co Taiwan, said Vista upgrade demand would help boost unit sales by at least 20 percent this year.

Acer, which is in close competition with Asustek for the top position in the nation's notebook computer market, was keen to capitalize on its last opportunity to increase market share before the end of the year.

"We think by 20-30 percent annual growth [by unit sales] is a reasonable target," Scott Lin (林顯郎), a president of Acer's greater China unit, said yesterday.

Asustek, No. 1 in the local market, held a narrow advantage over Acer in the third quarter.

Despite the stiff competition, Asustek and Acer have largely avoided price cuts this year. Instead, the companies are offering giveaways worth more than NT$5,000. These include extras such as high-speed 3.5-generation data cards that allow PC users to connect to the Internet on the go.

Kevin Lin said that most PC vendors lowered prices in September and October to boost back-to-school demand. He also said that the notebooks at the show were mostly equipped with large hard drives and the latest processors.

"PC prices decline marginally every quarter. This is probably the only electronics product that does not increase in price even as raw material prices increase," IDC Taipei PC analyst Dickie Chang (張祐菖) said.

4 percent

Chang forecast that PC shipments in Taiwan would grow by 4 percent year-on-year to 765,258 units this quarter. He said IT Month would have a minimal affect on shipments.

China-based Lenovo Group (聯想) has taken a more aggressive approach to safeguard its No. 4 position and is discounting its products at the show.

In addition to notebook computers, global positioning devices, liquid-crystal-display televisions and mobile phones will also be available at IT Month, which ends on Sunday.