Xiaomi Inc’s (小米) entry into the notebook industry next year would only have a limited impact on Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), as Xiaomi is not experienced at promoting sales through traditional retail channels, people familiar with the matter said yesterday.
“Compared with Xiaomi, Asustek is experienced at working with offline retail channels to promote notebook products, and it also has clear strategies in regional markets,” a source told the Taipei Times.
The source’s remarks came after reports said that the smartphone maker is planning to launch its first notebook priced at 2,999 yuan (US$466.40) in April.
The Chinese-language Digitimes and Next Magazine yesterday also reported that Inventec Corp (英業達) would be producing Xiaomi’s first notebook computer in China.
CHALLENGES
Asustek entered the smartphone business last year and the firm views Xiaomi as its top rival in the market.
As Asustek’s smartphone business still only has a limited sales contribution to the company, Xiaomi’s entry into the notebook industry could pose challenges for Asustek’s laptop business, analysts said.
However, the source sees the situation the other way around, saying that while Xiaomi might be doing well in China’s e-commerce sector for smartphones, it would not have the same advantage when dealing with offline channels for notebook computers.
Instead, Xiaomi is likely to lose its price advantage competing head-to-head with China’s Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) or Asustek in retail stores, the source said, adding that a requirement for continued investment into retail channels would increase Xiaomi’s costs.
Asustek CEO Jerry Shen (沈振來) on Nov. 5 was quoted by China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊) as saying that Xiaomi would face challenges if it attempts to enter the notebook computer business through traditional sales approaches.
However, if Xiaomi is able to leverage its e-commerce expertise in the notebook business, its entry might positively stimulate the industry, Shen said.
Asustek chief financial officer Nick Wu (吳長榮) yesterday told the Taipei Times that the company remains open-minded about the Chinese smartphone maker joining the notebook industry next year.
“Asustek has decades of experience in the PC industry, and we are optimistic that we can maintain our competitiveness in the market,” Wu said by telephone.
SALES FIGURES
Asustek yesterday posted its highest monthly sales in the company’s history last month, due to growing shipments of notebooks, smartphones and motherboards.
Consolidated sales grew 2.44 percent annually and 21.08 percent monthly to NT$50.14 billion (US$1.52 billion) last month, according to the firm’s filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The company said its notebook shipments this month are expected to decline slightly from last month, but that smartphone shipments would continue to increase.
Overall, the firm said the performance of its notebook business this quarter is expected to outpace that of its peers, supported by launches of new notebook models and increased investment on marketing resources and retail channels.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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