Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) yesterday launched its new Transformer Book Chi series as part of an effort to double shipments of its two-in-one detachable devices to 6 million units this year, a company executive said yesterday.
“As of recently, our Transformer Book T100 launched in October 2013 has shipped more than 3 million units and we have confidence that the shipment of the new Transformer Book Chi series will outperform T100’s record,” Asustek chief executive officer Jerry Shen (沈振來) said at the product launch in Taipei.
Shen said the Transformer Book T100 served as a key growth driver for the company last year, adding that not only did the product make impressive sales, it also accounted for 20 percent of the firm’s total revenue.
Photo: CNA
“We hope the revenue of tablet-notebook hybrid devices will increase by 20 percent to 30 percent this year, with the launch of the new Transformer Book Chi series product line,” Shen said.
Asustek also launched two new ZenBook models — Asus ZenBook UX305 and ZenBook Pro UX501.
Shen said the functionality and efficiency of the two models are better than rival Apple Inc’s MacBook Pro.
Shen said he nicknamed the 15.6-inch ZenBook Pro UX501 a “high-performance monster,” as the product is 2.06cm thick, but has an ultra-high-resolution — or 4K — display with an Intel Core i7 processor and gaming-grade graphics.
Asustek is upbeat that its PC segment will put up a strong performance this year, driven by sales of the new two-in-one devices, the ZenBook series, its Chromebook and its low-cost EeeBook, Shen said.
The company is set to launch a new Chromebook in the next quarter, Shen added.
Asustek’s goal is to achieve 15 percent growth in PC-related product shipments every year and to double PC-related product shipments within five years, Shen said.
According to market researcher TrendForce’s latest report, Asustek’s notebook shipments accounted for 11 percent of the market, or 19.3 million units, last year, ranking it fourth in terms of global notebook shipments, beating its rival Acer Inc (宏碁).
Separately, Shen said chipmaker Qualcomm being fined US$975 million by the Chinese government for violating antimonopoly laws is positive news for Asustek.
However, he declined to comment further on the news for the time being, saying that he would talk more about it at an investors’ conference set for Friday.
Asustek’s smartphone brand Pegasus, which launched a smartphone in China last month, uses Qualcomm’s processor.
DAMAGE REPORT: Global central banks are assessing war-driven inflation risks as the law of unintended consequences careens around the world, spiking oil prices Central banks from Washington to London and from Jakarta to Taipei are about to make their first assessments of economic damage after more than two weeks of conflict between the US and Iran. Decisions this week encompassing every member of the G7 and eight of the world’s 10 most-traded currency jurisdictions are likely to confirm to investors that the specter of a new inflation shock is already worrying enough to prompt heightened caution. The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to do exactly what everyone anticipated weeks ahead of its March 17-18 policy gathering: hold rates steady. The narrative surrounding that
Apple Inc increased iPhone production in India by about 53 percent last year and now makes a quarter of its marquee devices there, reflecting the US company’s efforts to avoid tariffs on China. The company assembled about 55 million iPhones in India last year, up from 36 million a year earlier, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named because the numbers aren’t public. Apple makes about 220 million to 230 million iPhones a year globally, with India’s share of the total increasing rapidly. Apple has accelerated its expansion in the world’s most populous country in recent years, bolstered
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) share of the global foundry market rose to almost 70 percent last year amid booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI), market information advisory firm TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said on Thursday. The contract chipmaker posted US$122.54 billion in revenue, up 36.1 percent from a year earlier, accounting for 69.9 percent of the global market, TrendForce said. Its share was up from 64.4 percent in 2024, it said. TSMC’s closest rival, Samsung Electronics, was a distant second, posting US$12.63 billion in sales, down 3.9 percent from a year earlier, for a 7.2 percent share of the global market. In the
HEADWINDS: The company said it expects its computer business, as well as consumer electronics and communications segments to see revenue declines due to seasonality Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it aims to grow its artificial intelligence (AI) server revenue more than 10-fold this year from last year, driven by orders from neocloud solutions clients and large cloud service providers. The electronics manufacturing service provider said AI server revenue growth would be driven primarily by the Nvidia Corp GB300 server platform. Server shipments are expected to increase each quarter this year, with the second half likely to outperform the first half, it said. The AI server market is expected to broaden this year as more inference applications emerge, which would drive demand for system-on-chip, application-specific integrated circuits