Asustek Computer Inc (Asus, 華碩電腦), pioneer of Internet-enabled mini-laptops called netbooks, believes the next wave of low-cost All-In-One (AIO) personal computers will rejuvenate the desktop market and see the same success as its netbooks.
“The preliminary sales target is 5 million units of [various models of] Asus AIOs in two years time,” Asustek chairman Jonney Shih (施崇棠) said during a surprise appearance at a company product launch on Thursday.
Shih said he believed that in three year’s time AIOs will take up 30 percent to 40 percent of the global desktop market and be a driving force behind reviving the declining desktop business.
Asustek chief executive officer Jerry Shen (沈振來) said the company’s AIO — Eee Top, with a 15.6-inch display — is already garnering interest in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the UK.
“Our first wave of shipments is estimated at 100,000 to 200,000 units,” Shen said at the launch.
Following the launch of the 15.6-inch Eee Top, Asustek plans to also introduce 20-inch and 22-inch versions.
The sales and marketing strategy for Eee Top will be similar to that of Eee PC, Shen said, adding that he expected Eee Top to reach Europe and the US before the holiday shopping season.
Similar in function and appearance to Apple Computer Inc’s iMac and Hewlett-Packard Co’s TouchSmart, Asustek’s Eee Top retails at NT$18,900 (US$565.53).
The device is based on the technology behind Asustek’ Eee PC mini laptop and features touch screen technology, a Windows XP Home operating system, USB ports, Gigabit LAN, WLAN, an integrated camera, a 160 Gigabyte (GB) hard drive, 1 GB of RAM and a card reader.
However, the processor is only an Intel Atom 270 chip. While energy-saving, it provides less power than the dual-core processors used in the other machines.
Eliminating most of the bells and whistles seen on iMac and TouchSmart, Eee Top positions itself as a bare-bone multimedia center for the family, allowing quick access to the Internet, music and photos, the company said.
Shen said he saw no market cannibalization in the company’s desktop Eee model called Eee Box and its core motherboard business with the introduction of Eee Top devices.
Shen said the Eee Box was strategically priced at below NT$10,000 while its motherboard business was dominated by loyal clients. The three are aimed at different customer groups, he said.
Asustek said that so far, it was comfortable with its component supplies. While foreign currency exchange remains a challenge, it said it outsourced currency risk management to an outside financial institution.
Shen said the company was outsourcing manufacturing to Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), which has extensive experience producing Sony and Apple’s AIO models, dispelling rumors that Asustek had contracted Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) for Eee Top production.
Apple, HP, Dell Inc and recently Micro-Star International Co (MSI, 微星科技) have all entered the AIO market, while Acer Inc (宏碁) is planning to release its AIO — called Gateway One — early next year.
AIOs are particularly popular in the education field because of their small size.
That applies especially to the iMac and its strong penetration of the US primary and higher educational markets because the devices are space-saving.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY DPA
The New Taiwan dollar is on the verge of overtaking the yuan as Asia’s best carry-trade target given its lower risk of interest-rate and currency volatility. A strategy of borrowing the New Taiwan dollar to invest in higher-yielding alternatives has generated the second-highest return over the past month among Asian currencies behind the yuan, based on the Sharpe ratio that measures risk-adjusted relative returns. The New Taiwan dollar may soon replace its Chinese peer as the region’s favored carry trade tool, analysts say, citing Beijing’s efforts to support the yuan that can create wild swings in borrowing costs. In contrast,
Nvidia Corp’s demand for advanced packaging from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remains strong though the kind of technology it needs is changing, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, after he was asked whether the company was cutting orders. Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Blackwell, consists of multiple chips glued together using a complex chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging technology offered by TSMC, Nvidia’s main contract chipmaker. “As we move into Blackwell, we will use largely CoWoS-L. Of course, we’re still manufacturing Hopper, and Hopper will use CowoS-S. We will also transition the CoWoS-S capacity to CoWos-L,” Huang said
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
VERTICAL INTEGRATION: The US fabless company’s acquisition of the data center manufacturer would not affect market competition, the Fair Trade Commission said The Fair Trade Commission has approved Advanced Micro Devices Inc’s (AMD) bid to fully acquire ZT International Group Inc for US$4.9 billion, saying it would not hamper market competition. As AMD is a fabless company that designs central processing units (CPUs) used in consumer electronics and servers, while ZT is a data center manufacturer, the vertical integration would not affect market competition, the commission said in a statement yesterday. ZT counts hyperscalers such as Microsoft Corp, Amazon.com Inc and Google among its major clients and plays a minor role in deciding the specifications of data centers, given the strong bargaining power of
RSS