Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), the world’s second-largest contract maker of notebooks by shipments, said quarter-on-quarter notebook shipments would not drop as much as expected in the first quarter of next year, a Chinese-language newspaper reported yesterday.
Quanta vice chairman and president C.C. Leung (梁次震) said in an interview with the United Evening News that the sequential shipment decline would narrow to 5 percent from the earlier forecast of 10 percent.
On Oct. 30, Leung told a media briefing that the company’s laptop shipments normally drop by between 10 percent and 15 percent in the first quarter from the previous quarter.
Leung said in the interview that the company also expected laptop shipments to increase 40 percent year-on-year beginning in the second quarter of next year, which is likely to help the company reclaim the crown of the world’s largest contract laptop maker, the newspaper said.
Quanta spokesman Elton Yang (楊俊烈) said yesterday by telephone that he could not confirm Leung’s forecast because he had not joined the interview.
Yang said, however, the company’s notebook shipments would grow nearly 40 percent next year from this year, fueled by Microsoft Corp’s new operating system and new chipsets from Intel Corp in the first quarter.
Quanta aims to ship 50 million notebook computers, up from this year’s estimated total of 36 million, he said.
“The general market sentiment is upbeat thanks to the recent launch of the Windows 7 operating system and new Intel chipsets coming up in the first quarter,” Yang said.
The company, whose clients include Apple Inc and Hewlett-Packard Co, is banking on netbook shipments for growth as well. Smaller laptops are expected to account for as many as 25 percent of global notebook shipments, he said.
Citigroup analyst Eve Jung (戎宜蘋) yesterday said HP’s solid performance in its Personal Systems Group for the latest quarter would bode well for Quanta next year.
“We expect Quanta to benefit most from volume growth as it is the largest supplier of HP’s consumer NB models for 2010,” Jung said in a client note.
Citigroup maintained a “buy” recommendation on Quanta shares, which closed unchanged at NT$64.7 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦), which overtook Quanta as the world’s largest notebook contract maker in the second quarter, is expected to ship a total of 37 million notebooks this year.
Compal president and chief executive officer Ray Chen (陳瑞聰) told reporters yesterday the company expected to ship 20 percent more notebooks next year.
The company would ship its first all-in-one PCs in the first quarter, and ship e-readers no later than the second quarter, he said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY KEVIN CHEN
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