Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) is expected to see only a slight fall in revenue in the first quarter of this year due to its healthy inventories and sales, a company executive said in a recent interview.
The firm is expected to record a quarter-on-quarter decrease of between 5 percent and 10 percent in revenues in the first three months of this year, which is usually the slowest season for sales, and the figure will be close to the 7 percent to 8 percent average drop forecast for the industry as a whole, Asustek chief executive officer Jerry Shen (沈振來) said.
slow season
“The first quarter is not expected to be so slow for us, because our personal computer inventories and sales are very healthy and stable in China and Europe,” he said.
However, Shen did say that the company’s Eee PC shipments in the US have been hurt by the strong sales of Apple’s iPad, although its regular notebook shipments have kept growing in that market.
brand image
In terms of Asustek’s efforts to improve its brand image among consumers, Shen said there were two indexes that can be used to evaluate consumer mind-share.
The first is that Asustek aims to increase its product mixture of middle and high-end PCs, which at present account for 20 percent of the company’s total products.
Asustek also plans to raise the average sales price of its products to a level higher than the industry average as calculated by custom research firm GfK, Shen added.
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