Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) expects shipments of PC and non-PC devices to rise by more than 10 percent to 87 million units this year, on the back of growing orders for Internet of Things applications and notebook computers, company executives said yesterday.
Besides being a leading contract notebook maker, Compal manufactures a wide range of tech products for global brands, including smartphones, tablet computers and LCD TVs.
“Last year was a difficult year for Compal... However, we believe our growth momentum will pick up this year due to the rising demand for smart home devices and smartwatches,” Compal president Ray Chen (陳瑞聰) told a media briefing in Taipei.
Photo: Cho I-chun, Taipei Times
The company’s PC shipments last year, including notebooks and all-in-one PCs, dropped 8.39 percent annually to 36 million units, while shipments of smartphones and tablets fell 2.7 percent to 36 million units. As a result, consolidated revenue declined 9.49 percent to NT$766.81 billion (US$24.26 billion) from 2015, company data showed.
Toshiba Corp’s decision to leave the consumer notebook business and Leshi Internet Information and Technology’s (LeEco, 樂視) financial crisis in the second half of last year affected Compal’s operations, Chen said.
This year, PC shipments are forecast to climb 11.11 percent to 40 million units, as the company receives more order allocation from existing clients, Chen said.
Shipments of smart home devices and smartwatches are expected to increase to between 10 million and 12 million units this year from last year’s 5.4 million, he said.
Chen said Compal is collaborating with Microsoft Corp to develop a smart home device similar to Amazon.com Inc’s voice-controlled Echo for an international brand.
The company will begin shipping the new product in the third quarter at the earliest, he said.
Compal will also start delivering smartwatches to a new client in the fashion industry from next quarter, he added.
The sales contribution from non-PC products is expected to climb to 31 percent of the company’s total revenue this year, compared with 27 percent last year, Chen said.
However, smartphone and tablet shipments could drop by as much as 10 percent this year from last year’s 36 million units, based on order forecasts from Compal’s smartphone clients, he said.
Chen said he is confident that LeEco, the company’s largest smartphone client, would be able to solve its financial troubles in the next four months as LeEco chairman and chief executive officer Jia Yueting (賈躍亭) has promised.
“Nowadays, it is not easy to find a client like LeEco that will place such large orders for smartphones... If LeEco continues to place large orders for smartphones to Compal, we will certainly ship the products,” Chen said.
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