The short supply of Intel Corp's central processing unit (CPU) chipsets for portable computers could trim shipments of Taiwanese branded notebook vendors this year, an industry watcher said yesterday.
"There is a shortage of Intel's mobile CPU chipsets for notebooks, with a gap of over 20 percent in meeting market demand," Simon Yang (楊勝帆), a senior researcher at the Topology Research Institute (拓墣產業研究所), said in a phone interview yesterday.
Yang said the CPU shortage has resulted from robust sales of laptops in the fourth quarter, which exceeded Intel's original expectations. Intel's products power over 90 percent of laptops worldwide.
In the third quarter, Intel reportedly cut prices of its processors used in desktop computers by as much as 35 percent to help reduce inventory and stimulate buying before students returned to school in September.
But the chip giant turned conservative on the market for the last quarter, due to slow after-school sales late in the third quarter, Yang said.
The global laptop market has grown by about 17 percent so far in the fourth quarter from the previous quarter, and Taiwan's notebook market growth jumped by 30 percent over the same time, according to statistics by the Taipei-based research house.
Compared to global laptop brands, smaller local vendors, including Acer Inc and Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which have less leverage to secure sustained chipset supply amid jitters over a deficiency in key components, are likely to see annual shipments slide by around 10 percent, Yang said.
Acer, the No. 5 player in the sector worldwide, originally hoped to ship 3.2 million notebooks this year, while Asustek, whose own-brand products make up half of its annual laptop shipment, expected to deliver around 2.8 million units, according to Topology.
Acer's president Wang Jen-tang (王振堂) told investors earlier this month that Intel's shortage could cast a shadow over the company's brisk sales in the quarter ending December.
Smaller rival Asustek, however, did not seem to be bothered by the problem.
"As we have a smaller branded laptop shipment, the shortage is not expected to affect us," said David Chang (
The company's delivery of contract-manufactured products would remain intact, as the issue will not impact clients, such as Apple Computer Inc, Chang said.
In spite of Asustek's optimism, the short supply of CPU chipsets could trim the nation's total laptop shipment for this year to 31 million units from the previous forecast of 32.4 million, Yang said.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that