The nation’s Apple tablet supply chain is likely to benefit from the launch of the new iPad model last week amid expectations of higher iPad 2 shipments, while notebook PC makers could face continued challenges this year, analysts said.
Apple Inc on Wednesday unveiled its new iPad at an event in San Francisco.
The iPad 2 is scheduled to hit the US market on Friday and several other countries on March 25.
With advantages in pricing, performance and immediate availability compared with other tablet products launched by smartphone and PC makers, Apple’s shipments of original iPad and iPad 2 are expected to total between 35 million and 45 million units this year, Ian Peng (彭建航), an analyst with DigiTimes Research, said in an e-mailed statement on Friday.
The overall market for tablet computers is expected to grow to between 55 million and 65 million units this year, the Taipei-based researcher predicted. Apple would dominate the market with a 70 percent share, he said.
“Taiwan supply chains are very positive and still expect more than 40 million to 50 million iPad -shipments in 2011, [up] from 14.8 million units in 2010,” Credit Suisse analysts Robert Cheng (鄭勝榮) and Pauline Chen (陳柏齡) said in a report on Friday.
Taiwanese companies involved in the iPad supply chain include main assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), casing producers Catcher Technology Co (可成科技) and Foxconn Technology Co (鴻準精密), printed circuit board and substrate makers Tripod Technology Corp (健鼎科技) and Kinsus Interconnect Technology Corp (景碩科技), as well as handset lens suppliers Largan Precision Co (大立光) and Genius Electronic Optical Co (玉晶光電).
Other Apple suppliers are battery makers Simplo Technology Co (新普科技) and Dynapack International Technology Corp (順達科技), passive components service providers Yageo Corp (國巨) and Delta Electronics Inc (台達電), as well as touch-panel producers Wintek Corp (勝華) and TPK Holding Co (宸鴻) and Chimei Innolux Corp (奇美電子).
Suppliers of iPad 2 are likely to continue benefiting from the tablet’s growing momentum after the new model hits the market later this month, but it is Hon Hai, the world’s biggest electronics manufacturing service provider and sole supplier of the new tablet, that is set to be the biggest beneficiary, Citigroup analyst Kevin Chang (張凱偉) said in a note on Wednesday.
“We estimate that total iPad sales will account for 11 percent to 12 percent of Hon Hai’s 2011 revenue, up from 5 percent to 6 percent in 2010,” Chang said. “More important, we believe that Hon Hai has managed to re-negotiate a better price with Apple on iPad 2 and also got higher allocation of the casing [along with Foxconn Tech].”
Credit Suisse said touch-panel makers TPK and Wintek should also gain substantially from iPad 2 because Apple orders account for over 70 percent of their revenues.
However, JPMorgan analysts led by Gokul Hariharan and J.J. Park, believe new entrants into the Apple supply chain — such as Catcher for casing, Chimei for panels and Delta for power adaptors — could see most upside in share prices, according to a client note issued on Wednesday.
Both Acer Inc (宏碁) and Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) are likely to face a growing challenge from iPad’s aggressive pricing, as higher iPad shipments could lead to lower shipments in their notebook computers and Android tablets, Citigroup said.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to