Samsung Electronics Co yesterday launched a series of notebook computers in Taiwan, including its new Ultrabook laptops, four years after the South Korean electronics giant entered the global market for notebook computers.
Last year, Samsung shipped 14 million notebooks, making it the seventh-largest notebook manufacturer in the world, the company said, citing figures from market researcher Gartner Inc. Samsung said its notebook shipments had increased by more than 70 percent since 2007.
“Taiwan is a tough market, where a lot of 3C products are made ... Local users are very demanding,” Cellia Yu (余倩梅), senior director of Samsung’s local marketing team, told a media briefing.
“With Windows 8 [operating system] and other platforms being launched later this year to spur growth, we think that represents a good time for us to tap into the Taiwanese market,” Yu said.
Offering authentic Samsung products, the South Korean electronics giant yesterday launched 9 laptops in Taiwan with all of them manufactured at its own Chinese factories, Yu said, adding that 75 percent of the components were also from Samsung's plants.
However, market researcher International Data Corp (IDC) was less optimistic. Laptop shipments from Taiwan would remain little changed from the 1.39 million units shipped last year, it said.
“The lukewarm recovery of the economy is one of the major factors limiting laptop sales growth because corporations are less willing to replace old PCs during tough times,” IDC analyst Andy Yeh (葉振男) said by telephone.
The stagnation also stems from the shortage of hard disc drivers caused by extensive flooding in Thailand, which cut PC makers’ shipments and allowed little leeway for firms to offer deep discounts to spur sales, Yeh said.
“Given that Microsoft Corp’s new Windows 8 system will not hit the market until September or October, it will do little to boost Taiwan’s PC market this year,” Yeh said.
Talking about the company’s business strategy, Yu said Samsung’s ambition was to compete with Apple Inc, rather than taking market share from Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) or Acer Inc (宏碁).
Asustek was the top PC brand in Taiwan last year by shipment, followed by Acer and China’s Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想), IDC said.
“We will not adopt a low pricing strategy. The low-end of the market will not be our target business in the initial stage,” Yu said.
Samsung is working with Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) to offer selective laptops as the South Korean firm seeks to drive down prices and match the mainstream models produced by local firms.
Samsung’s Series 3 will be available at NT$25,990 per unit, down from NT$34,900, bundled with a service package from Chung-hwa Telecom for a monthly fee of NT$850, Samsung said.
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