Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦), the world’s second-largest contract notebook computer maker, yesterday said the notebook market would speed up its pace of growth in 2013 as more ultra-slim models and high value-added products are introduced.
The company said it would target more high-value products to reinforce its gross profit margin, instead of focusing solely on shipping volume.
“The expansion of tablet-PC market will not cannibalize the growth of the traditional notebook market, as newly-launched notebook products will drive up the replacement trend in 2013,” company president Ray Chen (陳瑞聰) told a media briefing at Computex, where the company displayed several prototype notebooks with a lighter case and high efficiency, extended life battery.
Compal also revised downward its notebook shipment estimate for this year from 55 million to 48 million units because of expected lower netbook shipments this year.
“We decided to lower full-year netbook shipment by 6 million units, as the netbook’s market will possibly be eroded by the growth of tablets in the near term,” Chen said.
However, the company maintained its forecast of an increase of 5 percent to 10 percent for the global notebook market this year from last year, with similar growth expected to continue next year.
In addition to notebooks, tablets, digital TVs and smartphones will be the company’s primary growth drivers.
Chen said the company would meet its tablet shipment of 3.8 million units for this year, as a supply shortage of touch panels and touch sensors is expected to be solved next month.
For tablet production, Compal will leverage its close relationship with US handset chip developer Qualcomm Inc through its handset making subsidiary, Compal Communications Inc (華寶通訊), he added.
However, Chen said the number of tablet orders was higher than the company could ship and expected Apple Inc’s iPad to still likely account for between 75 percent to 80 percent of global tablet shipments — 55 million to 60 million units — this year, Chen said.
The company expects the shipment of digital TVs to total 8 million for this year, up from last year’s 5.4 million, he said.
Real estate agent and property developer JSL Construction & Development Co (愛山林) led the average compensation rankings among companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) last year, while contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) finished 14th. JSL Construction paid its employees total average compensation of NT$4.78 million (US$159,701), down 13.5 percent from a year earlier, but still ahead of the most profitable listed tech giants, including TSMC, TWSE data showed. Last year, the average compensation (which includes salary, overtime, bonuses and allowances) paid by TSMC rose 21.6 percent to reach about NT$3.33 million, lifting its ranking by 10 notches
Popular vape brands such as Geek Bar might get more expensive in the US — if you can find them at all. Shipments of vapes from China to the US ground to a near halt last month from a year ago, official data showed, hit by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and a crackdown on unauthorized e-cigarettes in the world’s biggest market for smoking alternatives. That includes Geek Bar, a brand of flavored vapes that is not authorized to sell in the US, but which had been widely available due to porous import controls. One retailer, who asked not to be named, because
SEASONAL WEAKNESS: The combined revenue of the top 10 foundries fell 5.4%, but rush orders and China’s subsidies partially offset slowing demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) further solidified its dominance in the global wafer foundry business in the first quarter of this year, remaining far ahead of its closest rival, Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. TSMC posted US$25.52 billion in sales in the January-to-March period, down 5 percent from the previous quarter, but its market share rose from 67.1 percent the previous quarter to 67.6 percent, TrendForce said in a report. While smartphone-related wafer shipments declined in the first quarter due to seasonal factors, solid demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) devices and urgent TV-related orders
MINERAL DIPLOMACY: The Chinese commerce ministry said it approved applications for the export of rare earths in a move that could help ease US-China trade tensions Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) is today to meet a US delegation for talks in the UK, Beijing announced on Saturday amid a fragile truce in the trade dispute between the two powers. He is to visit the UK from yesterday to Friday at the invitation of the British government, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. He and US representatives are to cochair the first meeting of the US-China economic and trade consultation mechanism, it said. US President Donald Trump on Friday announced that a new round of trade talks with China would start in London beginning today,
RSS