Sales by Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) at this year’s Taipei Computer Applications Show were 30 percent higher than a year earlier on stronger sales of notebook computers.
“We saw sales at the five-day computer exhibition hit NT$150 million [US$4.74 million], up about 30 percent from last year’s event,” Asustek senior product manager Jose Liao (廖逸翔), said.
“The increase in sales was the result of the launch of new ultra-thin notebook computer models to stimulate buying,” Liao said.
The computer applications show attracted a record 640,000 visitors during its run from last Thursday to Monday, 10 percent more than a year earlier, said the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), the organizer of the trade show.
During the show, Asustek sold about 7,000 notebook computers, or one almost “every 30 minutes,” with its new U-series laptops proving particularly popular, TAITRA said.
Asustek said its desktop computers, LCD displays, LED displays and navigation cellphones also attracted interest.
On Monday, Asustek reported that its sales rose 11.8 percent last month from June to NT$23.07 billion, in contrast to rival computer makers that reported double-digit month-on-month declines in revenues last month.
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦) posted NT$86.19 billion in sales last month, down 14 percent from June, and Wistron Corp (緯創) had NT$48.97 billion in sales last month, down 12.8 percent from a month earlier.
Goldman Sachs has lowered its forecast for shipment growth of the global notebook computer sector for the third quarter of this year to 5 percent from 9 percent.
The investment bank said top global notebook computer vendors have cut orders to their OEM suppliers, leading to declines in sales by those OEM companies last month.
“The expected weaker demand in the third quarter reflects a slower pace of global economic growth,” said Joanne Chien, head of research at Digitimes.
Chien said “back to school” sales in Europe and the US are worse than expected, and she believed the market also expects Christmas season sales to be less than satisfactory because of declining economic fundamentals.
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