Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) expects to ship between 7 million and 9 million tablets this year, a decline of up to 25.53 percent from last year’s 9.4 million tablets, mainly due to slow demand worldwide, a company executive said yesterday.
The latest forecast from Asustek chief executive Jerry Shen (沈振來) came after the company posted a weak performance in the tablet sector in the first half of this year, mainly because of production transition and a lack of demand.
In May, Shen told an investors’ conference that Asustek aimed to ship between 8 million and 10 million tablets this year.
Photo: CNA
As of last month, the company had sold 2.7 million tablets worldwide, a decrease of 34.14 percent from 4.1 million units sold in the same period last year, the firm said.
“The performance will pick up in the second half of this year following the launch of the new ZenPad series,” Shen told a media briefing after introducing the new tablet. “We aim to sell 1.5 million to 2 million tablets this quarter and the fourth quarter will be even better, driven by the new ZenPad tablet series.”
However, a high-ranking official at the company, who declined to be named, told reporters that given weak tablet demand worldwide it would be “very” difficult for the firm to sell 1.5 million tablets this quarter.
“To be honest, the first half of the year was very hard in the tablet segment... The company even had to spend the earnings from the smartphone segment to cover the losses in the tablet segment,” the official said. “Annual tablet shipments could be between 6 million and 7 million units this year.”
Asustek’s mobile segment, including smartphone and tablet products, accounted for 16 percent of the company’s total revenue of NT$102.18 billion (US$3.26 billion) in the first quarter.
Due to softer-than-expected global demand, International Data Corp (IDC) in May revised downward its forecast for tablet and two-in-one device shipments to 221.8 million units this year, from 2.1 percent annual growth to an annual decline of 3.8 percent.
Asustek chief financial officer David Chang (張偉明) said the company expects this quarter’s revenue to grow by at least 10 percent from last quarter’s NT$108.4 billion on better sales of smartphones.
“We expect smartphone shipments to increase by at least 20 percent quarter-on-quarter, while notebook shipments may grow by 10 percent from the previous quarter,” Chang said, hinting that Microsoft Corp’s new operating system could trigger demand for notebooks.
Asustek last week trimmed its annual notebook shipments target from 22.8 million to 20 million units. The company sold 20.3 million units last year.
IDC’s latest tallies showed that Asustek’s PC and notebook shipments fell 7.67 percent year-on-year to 4.33 million units last quarter, while Gartner Inc said the company’s notebook shipments fell 10.23 percent to 4.65 million units from the previous year.
IDC excludes two-in-one devices from its notebook shipments, whereas Gartner considers them a type of notebook.
Asustek shares plunged 4.26 percent to NT$281 in Taipei trading yesterday, underperforming the TAIEX, which gained 0.09 percent.
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