Asustek Computer Inc (
Net income rose 23 percent to NT$6.13 billion (US$184 million) from NT$4.97 billion a year earlier, the company said.
Asustek is expanding its business to sell more products such as notebooks under its own name, as well as leveraging famous brand names such as automaker Lamborghini. The company is also increasing contract manufacturing for clients such as Dell Inc and Apple Computer Inc.
"The company has a strong brand image from their motherboard business, which they leveraged to sell their notebook computers," said Calvin Huang, who rates Asustek a "buy" in his coverage for BNP Paribas in Taipei.
Asustek's unconsolidated third-quarter sales, reported earlier, rose 62 percent to NT$91.3 billion, compared with NT$56.3 billion a year earlier.
The company signed a deal with Italian sports car maker Lambhorgini SpA in January to design and sell products bearing both the Asustek and Lambhorgini names. In March, Asustek released a notebook computer with a light aluminum casing and leather inlay aimed at high-end customers.
"Our brand strategy was very helpful for our earnings," Asustek spokesman David Chang (
Asustek expanded its industrial design team from 60 designers in 2002 to 500 this year, with its product design team growing 10-fold over that period to 57 designers.
The company benefited from the recovery in the European computer market in the third quarter where consumers already know the Asustek name from its motherboard business, Huang said.
Asustek has a global market share of about 35 percent in motherboards, according to the company. It is Taiwan's fourth-largest notebook maker by third-quarter shipments, according to data compiled by UBS AG.
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
RSS