Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), the world’s largest contract laptop computer maker, expects its notebook shipments to be flat this year from last year as growing customer demand helps it overcome soft demand in the PC industry, a company executive said yesterday.
“Although the overall PC industry seems to be weaker this year than last year, Quanta should be able to maintain last year’s notebook shipments,” Quanta vice chairman C.C. Leung (梁次震) told shareholders at the firm’s annual general meeting.
The company shipped 48.5 million notebooks last year, up 12.5 percent from the previous year, according to Quanta.
Leung said, however, that revenues of the notebook segment, which accounted for 60 percent of the firm’s total revenues in the first quarter of this year, might decline slightly this year from last year, as it is set to ship more low-priced notebooks.
Overall, Leung expects sales to increase quarter-by-quarter, with the second half of the year to account for 55 percent of Quanta’s annual revenues.
Apart from Quanta’s core notebook business, shipments of the company’s wearable products grew significantly in the past few months, Leung said, adding that he expects wearables to make a significant revenue contribution in the foreseeable future.
Quanta assembles Apple Watches and 12-inch MacBooks.
Commenting on the company’s efforts to seeking growth drivers other than the notebook segment, Quanta chairman Barry Lam (林百里) said the firm’s cloud-computing business is “doing quite well” in terms of increasing market share and sales.
Lam said PCs might be replaced by other products, but cloud-computing applications are vital to future technologies.
“There will be a lot of innovation in cloud-computing technologies. The Internet of Things is only a part of the many smart applications that could be made available via the cloud,” Lam said, adding that he is upbeat on the business potential of self-driving cars which rely heavily on cloud technologies.
Lam said Apple Inc, Google Inc and Tesla Motors Inc all expressed interest in the development of self-driving cars, suggesting other large companies also see the potential demand for the technology.
Lam said Quanta could provide related hardware, servers and automotive electronics for companies that wish to tap into the development of autonomous cars.
New technologies also bring uncertainties Lam said, citing the potential safety issues for driverless cars and passenger planes.
Lam said he is not certain if self-driving cars would become common within five years, but he reiterated that there is significant market potential for the vehicles.
Sweeping policy changes under US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr are having a chilling effect on vaccine makers as anti-vaccine rhetoric has turned into concrete changes in inoculation schedules and recommendations, investors and executives said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has in the past year upended vaccine recommendations, with the country last month ending its longstanding guidance that all children receive inoculations against flu, hepatitis A and other diseases. The unprecedented changes have led to diminished vaccine usage, hurt the investment case for some biotechs, and created a drag that would likely dent revenues and
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