Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦), the world’s No. 5 PC vendor, yesterday said it forecast its notebook shipments would grow 7.6 percent next year from this year, while tablet computer shipments would increase by 90 percent in the same period.
The shipment targets came at a gathering yesterday of more than 1,000 Asustek managers and executives, including chairman Johnny Shih (施崇棠), vice chairman Jonathan Tsang (曾鏘聲) and chief executive officer Jerry Shen (沈振來), at the company’s Guandu (關渡) headquarters for its five-day annual global sales meeting to discuss internal sales target for next year.
Despite the global economic slowdown, Asustek outperformed its competitors in sales this year, with total unconsolidated revenue reaching NT$305 billion (US$10.5 billion) in the first 10 months, up 15.85 percent compared with the same period of last year.
By product, Asustek said notebook shipments were expected to continue growing to 24 million units from this year’s 22.3 million and tablet shipments to increase to 12 million units from 6.3 million units this year.
Total shipment of notebook and tablet computers are expected to reach 36 million units next year.
Asustek said it believed 7-inch tablet computers would be the main driver of its sales next year. During the company’s investors’ conference last month, Asustek said it forecast tablet shipments would reach at least 10 million next year.
On Oct. 30, Shen told investors and analysts that the company expected its notebook and 2-in-1 computers to rank No. 2 after Apple Inc’s products. He also expected to sell at least 10 million of Google Inc’s Android-powered tablets next year, including the popular 7-inch Nexus 7, Asustek’s tablet co-branded with Google, and its PadFone series.
Asustek said shipments of its 2-in-1 PadFone, which combines a smartphone with a tablet computer, will double next year to 1 million units.
The computer maker yesterday said it is confident that its latest VivoBook touch-screen notebook will carry on its sales momentum through to next year, sustaining the company’s leading place in the touch-screen notebook market, although competition in the sector will intensify next year as differences between each competitor’s market share decrease.
Asustek shares fell by 2 percent to NT$318.5 yesterday at the close of trading in Taipei, underperforming the broader market, which gained 0.26 percent.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by