Impacted by falling orders and a lukewarm response to new notebook technology, Wistron Corp (緯創), Taiwan’s third-largest contract maker of notebooks, is expected to see smaller momentum than its rivals in fourth-quarter notebook shipments.
The company has lowered its growth forecast for fourth-quarter notebook shipments to 5 percent from an earlier target of 10 percent. It shipped 6.9 million notebooks in the third quarter.
Late last month, Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) said it expected its notebook shipments to rise as much as 18 percent quarter-on-quarter to 11.5 million units this quarter. Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶), meanwhile, forecast shipment growth of 10 percent.
Wistron’s “downward adjustment came after a client reduced orders for consumer ultra-low voltage [CULV] notebook models, whose market reception was not as good as expected,” a corporate communications official at Wistron said over the phone, speaking on condition of anonymity.
CULV notebooks offer prolonged battery life of up to eight hours. The processors are designed to work at lower voltages and use less power. In addition, as such processors require less cooling, CULV notebooks are lighter and thinner.
“But how consumers warm to the new technology must be further assessed. There is a gap between the client’s expectations and the response from consumers,” the Wistron official said.
In a report issued last Monday, Capital Securities Corp (群益證券) said Wistron would see weaker momentum than its peers in the fourth quarter.
This is a result of lower shipments of CULV products for Acer Inc (宏碁) and the phasing out of some Hewlett-Packard Co models taken over by rival Quanta, the report said.
Market researcher International Data Corp (IDC) forecast that CULV notebook shipments would account for just 3 percent of total laptop shipments this year. The figure should rise to 9 percent next year, IDC said.
CULV models compromise on computing power to extend battery life, but as many notebook owners use their machines at home or at other locations with access to an electrical outlet, CULV models are not as attractive, said Helen Chiang (江芳韻), a PC and peripherals research manager at IDC.
Acer is poised to roll out new CULV models next year with enhanced computing power, Acer chairman Wang Jeng-tang (王振堂) said at an investor conference last month.
The company is pinning its hopes on CULV models — which currently account for between 15 percent and 20 percent of its total shipments — to boost its overall notebook sales next year, Wang said.
On Friday, Wistron reported NT$53.24 billion (US$1.6 billion) in revenue for last month, up 1.38 percent from September and representing its second-highest ever monthly sales. Total sales for the first 10 months of the year were NT$439.4 billion, up 24.1 percent from last year.
The company maintained a shipment forecast of 25 million portable computers this year, up from 22 million last year. Next year’s shipments should be between 30 million and 32 million, the communications officer said.
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