Apple Inc’s iPad and other tablets may not sell as well as analysts had estimated as customers cut back spending on new technology or opt for new smartphones and laptops instead, according to Rodman & Renshaw LLC.
Apple, which sold 4.19 million iPads last quarter, may have trouble hitting some analysts’ estimates of 6 million sold in the fourth quarter, said analyst Ashok Kumar, who predicts Cupertino, California-based Apple may sell as few as 5 million of the touch-screen tablets.
Tablet computers, which let customers watch videos and read digital magazines and books, are still a “tweener” niche with limited capabilities that might prevent consumers from adopting the technology as quickly as some industry analysts had forecast, Kumar said.
Samsung Electronics Co is cutting its planned production by about 50 percent for the Galaxy Tab after poor sales, he said, citing discussions with suppliers.
“It’s a nice-to-have product, for those of us who don’t have a budget, but is it a must-have product? I don’t think so,” said New York-based Kumar, who rates the shares “market outperform” and doesn’t own any.
Apple has allowed other retailers, including Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc and Wal-Mart Stores Inc, to sell the device in the US as it looks for ways to increase sales. The company had captured 95 percent of the global tablet market in the third quarter, according to researcher Strategy Analytics.
Research In Motion Ltd, which makes the BlackBerry line of smartphones, will release a tablet for less than US$500 in North America in the first quarter to compete with the iPad. Dell Inc has released its Streak tablet with a five-inch screen. Motorola Inc is also planning a tablet release early next year, co-chief executive officer Sanjay Jha has said.
Trudy Muller, an Apple spokeswoman, declined to comment.
The Galaxy Tab has only been available in some markets for a few days and it’s too early to make predictions about sales, said Kim Titus, spokesman for Samsung’s US business.
“We do expect this device to be a very hot holiday device,” he said.
Samsung will be a strong rival to Apple and Taiwanese tablet makers next year, a researcher at the Topology Research Institute (拓墣產業研究所) said in a recent interview.
“Samsung will be a powerful competitor in the 2011 tablet market because of its cost-down production ability and its long-term cooperation with telecom carriers worldwide,” Ryan Lee (李易聰) said at the Taipei-based research institute.
The Galaxy Tab, with a seven-inch screen and the Android 2.2 operating system, will go on sale this month in Taiwan in partnership with Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) and Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信), while Apple has not yet launched its iPad in Taiwan.
Samsung, in addition to the Android Marketplace, which is an online store for Android-based cellphone users to download software, has also provided users with similar services from its own applications store since last year, which shows the company’s insight into the significance of developing its own mobile content, Lee said.
Although local tablet makers such as Acer Inc (宏碁) and Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) are good at reducing the cost of their products and are not targeting the same high-end consumers that the iPad is aimed at, current local products do not yet offer content or applications that are attractive to consumers, Lee said.
Another Taiwanese vendor, First International Computer Inc (大眾) — the latest entry into the market — which launched its first Windows-based tablet last week, has forecast that a total of 100,000 tablet computers would be sold in Taiwan next year, including Windows-based systems, Android-based systems and iPads.
However, Lee said the licensing fees for using the Windows operating system, usually four to five times higher than the Android system, might result in fewer Taiwanese computer makers being willing to use the Windows system for their tablets.
Three experts in the high technology industry have said that US President Donald Trump’s pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors is part of an effort to force Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to the negotiating table. In a speech to Republicans on Jan. 27, Trump said he intends to impose tariffs on Taiwan to bring chip production to the US. “The incentive is going to be they’re not going to want to pay a 25, 50 or even a 100 percent tax,” he said. Darson Chiu (邱達生), an economics professor at Taichung-based Tunghai University and director-general of
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is reportedly making another pass at Nissan Motor Co, as the Japanese automaker's tie-up with Honda Motor Co falls apart. Nissan shares rose as much as 6 percent after Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported that Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) instructed former Nissan executive Jun Seki to connect with French carmaker Renault SA, which holds about 36 percent of Nissan’s stock. Hon Hai, the Taiwanese iPhone-maker also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), was exploring an investment or buyout of Nissan last year, but backed off in December after the Japanese carmaker penned a deal
WASHINGTON POLICY: Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs are tipped to hit shipments of small parcels, cutting export growth by 1.3 percentage points The decision by US President Donald Trump to ban Chinese companies from using a US tariff loophole would hit tens of billions of dollars of trade and reduce China’s economic growth this year, according to new estimates by economists at Nomura Holdings Inc. According to Nomura’s estimates, last year companies such as Shein (希音) and PDD Holdings Inc’s (拼多多控股) Temu shipped US$46 billion of small parcels to the US to take advantage of the rule that allows items with a declared value under US$800 to enter the US tariff-free. Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs would slash such
SENSOR BUSINESS: The Taiwanese company said that a public tender offer would begin on May 7 through its wholly owned subsidiary Yageo Electronics Japan Yageo Corp (國巨), one of the world’s top three suppliers of passive components, yesterday said it is to launch a tender offer to fully acquire Japan’s Shibaura Electronics Co for up to ¥65.57 billion (US$429.37 million), with an aim to expand its sensor business. The tender offer would be a crucial step for the company to expand its sensor business, Yageo said. Shibaura Electronics is the world’s largest supplier of thermistors, with a market share of 13 percent, research conducted in 2022 by the Japanese firm showed. If a deal goes ahead, it would be the second acquisition of a sensor business since