Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦), the world’s No. 5 PC brand, yesterday made public its ambition of seizing at least a 10 percent share of the non-iPad tablet market next year, which would round off to between 1 million and 1.5 million shipments.
“[We aim to] achieve a double-digit market share of the non-Apple platform in 2011. The non-Apple tablet units could be 10 million to 15 million next year, based on the current available research and estimates,” a statement from the company said.
Analysts have expected Apple Inc to ship as many as 40 million iPads next year, up from this year’s 15 million.
The remaining tablet market of 10 million to 15 million units will be split by a dozen other competitors, including Samsung Electronics Co, Research in Motion Ltd, Acer Inc (宏碁), HTC Corp (宏達電).
Asustek’s larger rival, Acer, currently the world’s No. 3 PC brand, is aiming for a 30 percent share of the non-iPad tablet market next year.
In addition to Android and Windows Mobile platforms, the company has a third project running on the MeeGo platform, Acer’s sources told the Taipei Times last month.
Asustek will formally unveil its first batch of tablets in next month’s Consumer Electronics Show held in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Meanwhile, Asustek has internally set an aggressive target to ship up to 25 million notebooks next year, higher than the 20 million figure it made public, a company source said.
The higher goal was set after the company held a three-day global sales meeting in Taipei that concluded yesterday. Asustek top executives evaluated the performance of various divisions for the year and drew up new goals for next year during the meeting.
Twenty-five million units would represent 48 percent growth from this year’s shipments of 16.9 million.
The company, which is gearing up to become the world’s No. 4 PC brand next year, is also eyeing China for notebook growth.
It is currently the No. 3 notebook player in China and it would dedicate more resources to develop its presence in the booming market to become No. 2 next year, the source said.
Asustek yesterday also announced that it aims for 5 percent growth in motherboard shipments next year.
“With our pricing power, brand premium and scale advantage in the motherboard industry, we expect to achieve steady market share gains, stable pricing and a strong margin profile together in 2011,” the Asustek statement read.
However, the firm did not disclose its smartphone target for next year.
Starting next month, the company will officially scrap its co-brand strategy with portable navigation devices maker Garmin Ltd, No. 1 in the US, after attempts to lure users with Garmin’s -location-based services failed.
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
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
TARIFF SURGE: The strong performance could be attributed to the growing artificial intelligence device market and mass orders ahead of potential US tariffs, analysts said The combined revenue of companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Taipei Exchange for the whole of last year totaled NT$44.66 trillion (US$1.35 trillion), up 12.8 percent year-on-year and hit a record high, data compiled by investment consulting firm CMoney showed on Saturday. The result came after listed firms reported a 23.92 percent annual increase in combined revenue for last month at NT$4.1 trillion, the second-highest for the month of December on record, and posted a 15.63 percent rise in combined revenue for the December quarter at NT$12.25 billion, the highest quarterly figure ever, the data showed. Analysts attributed the
RSS