MSI targeting the notebook market

Micro-Star International Corp Ltd (MSI, 微星科技) is hoping to rank among the world's top 10 notebook PC manufacturers in terms of shipments by increasing its global market share to between 3 percent and 4 percent by 2010, an MSI executive said yesterday.

"The global notebook PC market is expected to see 20 percent growth this year, with approximately 120 million units produced, up from last year's 100 million," the director of MSI's Greater China sales department, Sambora Chen (程惠正), said at a press briefing yesterday while showcasing the company's latest notebooks to be demonstrated at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas later this month.

"MSI currently accounts for 1 percent of the global notebook PC market and we plan to expand it to 3 percent to 4 percent by 2010," product manager Ricky Yao (姚正利) said.

MSI is focusing on both the gaming and personalized product series market, Yao said. Its gaming notebook, the MSI GX600, is the first notebook PC in the world to feature Turbo Drive Engine (TDE) technology, which immediately accelerates the speed of the operating system when the user touches a special key on the keyboard.

When asked whether MSI would tap into the emerging low-cost notebook market, Chen said: "MSI has been looking at this market since the launch of Asustek Computer Inc's (華碩電腦) Eee PC in September last year, which was a huge success and sold as many as 350,000 units in four months."

Chen said the company would consider entering the market if global sales reached 5 million units this year, adding that it would not become the company's main focus.

MSI is currently the world's No. 5 motherboard manufacturer and the No. 1 graphics card maker.