The nation’s notebook computer shipments are expected to drop 5 percent annually to 139 million units this year because of the increasing production capacity of Chinese manufacturers, the Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (MIC, 產業情報研究所) said yesterday.
The world’s leading PC maker, Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想), which held a 20 percent share of the global notebook market last year — the largest chunk — is in the process of raising its production capacity, which will reduce its orders to Taiwanese makers, MIC senior manager Charles Chou (周士雄) told reporters on the sidelines of a news conference in Taipei.
Lenovo established a joint venture with Taiwanese contract laptop maker Compal Electronics Co (仁寶) — Lienpal Ltd (聯寶) — in China in 2011. Under the contract, Lenovo could purchase Compal’s 49 percent share in Lienpal after October 2017.
Lienpal makes notebook, all-in-one PCs and related products.
MIC expects Lienpal’s notebook shipments to grow 21.42 percent to 17 million units from last year’s 14 million units to meet rising demand from Lenovo, Chou said.
The anticipated annual decline in Taiwan’s notebook shipments is also because of a higher base last year amid replacement demand, he said.
Chou said the July launch of the Windows 10 operating system would drive limited demand for the PC industry as users of the current Windows 8 system can upgrade to Windows 10 for free.
MIC forecast worldwide desktop shipments would drop 9 percent to 120 million units this year from last year, with Taiwan’s desktop shipments plummeting 17.1 percent year-on-year due to high inventories of business models.
“Contract computer makers were too optimistic last year about the outlook for desktop computers and shipped too many products. As a result, a lot of the desktops were piled up in retailers’ warehouses due to weaker-than-expected demand,” Chou said.
MIC expects global shipments of two-in-one detachable tablet computers to soar 62.5 percent to 13 million units this year on the back of the growing demand and the products’ competitive average selling price of US$400, he said.
The two-in-1 models are priced higher than traditional tablets, but lower than notebooks, Chou said, adding that their lightweight and thin bodies also help attract consumers.
In related news, PC maker Acer Inc (宏碁) yesterday said it expects notebook shipments in Taiwan this quarter to be less than last quarter because of a slow season.
“We expect the notebook shipments to pick up by 30 percent next quarter from this quarter, fueled by the upcoming launches of consumer notebooks,” Tim Lin (林勇易), a senior product manager for monitors, said on the sidelines of a product launch event in Taipei.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained