Wistron Corp (緯創), the world’s third-biggest contract notebook maker, expects its notebook shipments to grow about 20 percent in the second half of the year from the first half, Wistron chairman Simon Lin (林憲銘) said yesterday.
Lin said that every product line except for TV assembly should be able to maintain 20 percent growth as forecast at the beginning of this year, but that TV shipments were likely to drop in the second half or remain at the same level as in the first half of the year.
Besides TVs and notebooks, Wistron also makes handheld devices, servers, liquid-crystal displays and desktop PCs.
Saying that last year was a challenging year for the company, with a drop in profits compared with 2010, Lin said this year had also brought some big challenges, including the escalating eurozone debt crisis and China’s declining economic growth.
The impact from the eurozone and China was especially evident in the first quarter, when orders across product lines and industries shrank, Lin said. However, he said he had seen some good signs in the industry’s recent development.
In the past year, the notebook industry was hard hit by the success of Apple Inc’s iPads, but now customers have gradually come to the realization that iPads cannot replace notebooks, Lin said, adding that tablets have created both a separate need and a separate market. The notebook market has begun to bounce back as the impact from tablets dies down, Lin said.
Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system is also on the horizon and has helped boost the morale of the non-Apple camp, as well as market momentum, Lin said, adding that Wistron would step up investment in touch panels to cope with the trend.
Lin said he had seen orders coming in quickly and was therefore preparing increased capacity. He said he expected the notebook market to grow slowly, but stably in the future, and forecast that the company’s shipment of notebooks in the second half of the year would top that of the same period last year.
Wistron said it shipped a record 31.55 million units of notebooks last year.
According to the company’s financial statement, Winstron’s consolidated revenue last year reached NT$658.37 billion (US$22.04 billion), with operating income at NT$10.58 billion. The company’s net profit last year was NT$9.07 billion, with earnings per share of NT$4.36.
Shareholders yesterday approved the company’s plan to distribute a cash dividend of NT$2.20 and a stock dividend of NT$0.50 per common share or 5 percent.
‘SHORT-TERM ECONOMIC PAIN’: A military takeover would only temporarily weigh on wafer production on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, IC Insights said Taiwan has more chip manufacturing capacity than any other economy in the world, US-based market information advisory firm IC Insights said in a research paper last week, cautioning that the nation’s strength could prompt China to attempt to take over Taiwan. Taiwan commanded 21.4 percent of global installed IC capacity, ahead of South Korea’s 20.4 percent, Japan’s 15.8 percent and China’s 15.3 percent, North America’s 12.6 percent and Europe’s 5.7 percent, IC Insights said. Taiwan is one of two countries that uses 10-nanometer technology or better to produce wafers, holding 62.8 percent of global capacity, with South Korea holding the remaining 37.2
SELF-SUFFICIENCY: Alibaba is one of a number of Chinese firms that has answered Beijing’s call to invest in the development of cutting-edge technologies Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) yesterday unveiled a new server chip that is based on advanced 5-nanometer technology, marking a milestone in China’s pursuit of semiconductor self-sufficiency. The Chinese tech giant’s newest chip is based on micro-architecture provided by the SoftBank Group Corp-owned Arm Ltd, it said. Alibaba, which is holding its annual cloud summit in Hangzhou, China, said that the chip is to be used in its own data centers in the “near future” and would not, for the time being, be sold commercially. “Customizing our own server chips is consistent with our ongoing efforts toward boosting our computing capabilities with better
AGGRESSIVE STEP: With the new processors, Apple is aiming at the high-end chips Intel has provided for the MacBook Pro and other top-end Macs for about 15 years Apple Inc on Monday took the most aggressive step yet to strip Intel Corp chips from its computers, announcing more powerful homegrown Mac processors alongside a total revamp of its MacBook Pro laptop computers. The company showcased the chips at an event called “Unleashed,” which also included its latest audio products. The new components, called the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips, are 70 percent faster than its M1 predecessors, Apple said. It also unveiled a redesigned MacBook Pro, adding larger screens, MagSafe charging and better resolution. With the new processors and devices, Apple is aiming squarely at the high-end chips that Intel has
PRICE SPREAD: Oil trading under the Brent futures contract is giving the US a hefty edge in pricing, increasing the rush to secure cheap fuel as winter approaches Asian demand for US oil is rising as the energy crisis boosts prices for other crudes that are priced against the global Brent futures contract. China and other Asian buyers have been snapping up supertankers of US oil for delivery next month and seeking more for December, some traders have said. Most buyers are seeking US grades that had recently slumped to the lowest levels in more than a year, with an added incentive after Beijing awarded millions of tonnes of crude oil import quotas. A wide spread between Brent and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil futures is accommodating higher US crude
RSS