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Asustek aims to sell 6 million laptops

Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) yesterday reiterated its full-year global sales target of 6 million notebooks and 5 million Eee PCs, the company’s line of low-cost ultra-small notebooks.

Although Asustek has lowered its forecast for European notebook shipments from 4 million units to between 3.6 million and 3.8 million units, sales director Kevin Lin (林福能) said the company expected to make up for the drop with increased sales in emerging markets. The company has therefore maintained its overall revenue goal of US$5 billion to US$6 billion for this year.

“As the Christmas holiday season approaches, we can expect a reasonable amount of holiday spending, but not as much as previous years, as a result of the recent economic turmoil, which has hit the US and Europe the hardest,” Lin said at a media.

Asustek has worked on building its presence in Europe over the past year and sees the region as a springboard to become a leading PC maker worldwide. Since its Eee PC debuted in Europe last October, more than 2 million Eee PCs have been sold.

The Taipei-based company expected to break its full-year European sales target of 2.5 million Eee PCs by the end of the year, for a total of 49 percent of Asustek’s global annual notebook shipments, Asustek general manager for Europe Eric Chen (陳彥政) said in a press release on Wednesday.

Gartner Inc, a US information technology research firm, said Asustek has an 11 percent share of the notebook market in Europe and is the No. 5 notebook maker in Europe. With strong sales of Eee PCs, the research company said Asustek could climb as high as third place this year.

Once the global economy begins to recover, Asustek will stand to gain from its strategic partnerships with local telecom operators, such as France’s SFR, Italy’s Telecom Italia Mobile and Germany’s T-Mobile, Lin said.

Telecom alliances make up for approximately 20 percent of Asus’ overall Eee PC sales. To further capitalize on these partnerships, the computer manufacturer will release the world’s first built-in 3G netbook next week, the 901 Go.

Tests of the 901 Go are in their final stages in more than ten countries in Europe, Chen said.

Asustek also hopes to see Eee PCs become an indispensable tool in classrooms all over the world and is currently focusing on students in Britain and Russia.

“The Eee PC is not popular because it is inexpensive, it is popular because it meets the needs of consumers,” Chen said.

Seeking to win over customers with innovation, the No. 1 motherboard producer in the world has also introduced the first ever fragrant laptops.

The F6V series uses aroma beads baked into the plastic casing of the notebook, product manager Zace Huang (黃立中) said.

As the notebook warms up, molecules of fragrance are gradually released.

The fragrance beads last anywhere between three and six months, Huang said at the product briefing yesterday.
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