However, Burke said he had seen no increase in orders catering for these platforms.
“Maybe [we will see more orders] one year down the road, but currently they are ... not ready for the mainstream consumers,” he said.
The current focus remains Intel-type processors with Windows OS, or non-Intel CPUs with Windows, he said.
Global research firm IDC said last month that the PC market was rebounding as consumers took advantage of lower prices and bought more laptops. Burke said, however, that the laptop segment of the PC market was pretty complex, and the increase in netbook sales was lowering that of regular notebooks.
“In this economy, we do see people being more value conscious. We have also seen our netbook business growing at 16 to 20 percent quarter-on-quarter, as netbooks currently comprise 8 percent to 10 percent of revenue share for the computing segment,” he said.
Burke said the most promising segment was the low-priced notebooks that sell for between US$500 and US$900.
On the other hand, the high-end, gaming-supported laptops with price tags of between US$1,500 and US$6,000 per unit are also very popular, he said.
However, as margins shrink, Flextronics actually saw its profit margin turn red in the three months ending on July 3, when it posted a loss of US$154 million. However, Burke remains optimistic about the company’s future. He said Flextronics was no stranger to this type of thin-margin competition and the company would squeeze out a profit through volume production and from the vertical integration process.
Without giving any sales guidance in the notebook segment, Burke said his department’s revenue would come from high volume shipments, adding that he saw a future unit growth rate double that of the market average.
During the interview, Burke did not confirm market speculation that Flextronics was aiming for double-digit annual growth rates on notebook shipment and revenue by next year.
He said that in order to achieve these milestones, “Flextronics intends to increase its scale, improve upon current cost structure, and leverage integration of existing complimentary processes.”
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