Local contract notebook computer makers Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶), Wistron Corp (緯創) and Pegatron Corp (和碩) reported weaker sales last month.
Compal, the world’s No. 2 contract notebook computer maker, yesterday said last month’s sales fell 27.2 percent to NT$53.45 billion (US$1.84 billion), from NT$73.41 billion in the same month last year, according to its statement.
On a monthly basis, the results were a 11.71 percent decline from NT$60.54 billion in December.
Compal shipped 3.4 million notebooks last month, down from 3.5 million in December.
Compal said it expected its notebook shipments to drop 5 to 10 percent in the first quarter owing to the recall of Intel’s new Sandy Bridge chips.
Larger rival Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) said on Wednesday that its laptop PC shipments in the first quarter would decline more than 10 percent because of the recall.
Wistron reported sales of NT$45.58 billion last month, a 1.5 percent drop from January last year, or down 15.8 percent from December, according to a company statement.
The company shipped 2.3 million laptops, down 13.5 percent from December, while server -shipments also declined.
However, demand was stable for its other non-notebook product lines, such as LCD TVs, desktops, smart handhelds and LCD monitors.
Shipments of TVs and desktops held steady at 350,000 and 800,000 respectively, while those of smart handphones climbed to 750,000 from 600,000, it said.
The company expected revenue from the non-notebook segment to rise to 45 percent this year from 35 percent last year, as it seeks to cut dependence on notebook production.
The recall of Intel Corp’s flawed Sandy Bridge chipset “wouldn’t have a huge impact on Wistron because it isn’t shipping many notebooks equipped with the new chipset,” the Chinese-language Commercial Times quoted company CEO Simon Lin (林憲銘) as saying on Wednesday.
Pegatron, meanwhile, saw sales drop 6.3 percent to NT$29.2 billion last month.
The decline was caused by the drop in “revenue from the consumer electronics segment as a result of product seasonality,” the company said in a statement.
Separately, HTC Corp (宏達電), the world’s No. 5 smartphone brand, saw last month’s revenue expand 213.4 percent year-on-year to NT$35 billion.
The company last month predicted revenue and smartphone shipments in the first quarter to both grow some 1.5-fold from a year earlier amid solid demand for its smartphones.
Revenue will expand 147 percent to NT$94 billion, while smartphone shipments will grow 157 percent to 8.5 million units, according to the company’s forecast.
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