Global PC shipments will hit bottom this year as the economic crisis continues to unfold, industry researchers said.
Shipments were likely to drop 1.5 percent year-on-year to 262.44 million units from 266.36 million units last year after a growth of 11.5 percent last year, the Market Intelligence and Consulting Institute (MIC, 產業情報研究所) reported yesterday.
“In 2008, there was no problem on the demand side; instead, we saw a supply chain glitch when there was a sudden shortage of notebook batteries and plastic coating. But as we are in 2009, the real problem is not on the supply side, but strictly a lack of worldwide demand,” said Chris Wei (魏傳虔), an MIC senior analyst.
By comparison, International Data Corp (IDC) and iSuppli Corp are somewhat positive about global PC shipments, though they have both recently downgraded their forecasts. IDC predicted shipments would grow 3.8 percent this year and iSuppli estimated an increase of 4.3 percent.
Previously they forecast increases of 13.7 percent and 11.9 percent respectively for this year.
According to IDC’s figures, worldwide PC shipments were down 7.1 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, while most pundits suggested there would be a better performance in the second quarter.
Wei believes a re-shuffling of the PC industry is due as a result of the worldwide recession.
“Smaller PC firms will either go out of business, merge or be bought out. But the top five ranking PC vendors such as Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Acer (宏碁) shall remain in their spots,” Wei said.
Due to the global credit squeeze, consumers are embracing low-priced netbooks, which are encroaching on the market share of traditional notebooks.
Based on MIC’s forecast, notebook shipments would buck the downward trend by registering more than 50 percent year-on-year growth to 122.21 million units this year.
“But as we start to see vendors come out with less expensive notebooks with bigger screens embedded with Intel’s Atom Z series central processing unit, there will definitely be a tug-of-war,” Wei said.
The real victims in this battle would most likely be high-end notebooks, he said.
SETBACK: Apple’s India iPhone push has been disrupted after Foxconn recalled hundreds of Chinese engineers, amid Beijing’s attempts to curb tech transfers Apple Inc assembly partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known internationally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has recalled about 300 Chinese engineers from a factory in India, the latest setback for the iPhone maker’s push to rapidly expand in the country. The extraction of Chinese workers from the factory of Yuzhan Technology (India) Private Ltd, a Hon Hai component unit, in southern Tamil Nadu state, is the second such move in a few months. The company has started flying in Taiwanese engineers to replace staff leaving, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named, as the
The prices of gasoline and diesel at domestic fuel stations are to rise NT$0.1 and NT$0.4 per liter this week respectively, after international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to rise to NT$27.3, NT$28.8 and NT$30.8 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to rise to NT$26.2 per liter at CPC stations and NT$26 at Formosa pumps, they said. The announcements came after international crude oil prices
DOLLAR SIGNS: The central bank rejected claims that the NT dollar had appreciated 10 percentage points more than the yen or the won against the greenback The New Taiwan dollar yesterday fell for a sixth day to its weakest level in three months, driven by equity-related outflows and reactions to an economics official’s exchange rate remarks. The NT dollar slid NT$0.197, or 0.65 percent, to close at NT$30.505 per US dollar, central bank data showed. The local currency has depreciated 1.97 percent so far this month, ranking as the weakest performer among Asian currencies. Dealers attributed the retreat to foreign investors wiring capital gains and dividends abroad after taking profit in local shares. They also pointed to reports that Washington might consider taking equity stakes in chipmakers, including Taiwan Semiconductor
A German company is putting used electric vehicle batteries to new use by stacking them into fridge-size units that homes and businesses can use to store their excess solar and wind energy. This week, the company Voltfang — which means “catching volts” — opened its first industrial site in Aachen, Germany, near the Belgian and Dutch borders. With about 100 staff, Voltfang says it is the biggest facility of its kind in Europe in the budding sector of refurbishing lithium-ion batteries. Its CEO David Oudsandji hopes it would help Europe’s biggest economy ween itself off fossil fuels and increasingly rely on climate-friendly renewables. While
RSS