Taiwan’s major notebook contract makers posted a range of monthly declines in revenue this month from last month as tablets cut into notebook demand.
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), the world’s largest contract notebook producer, yesterday posted its smallest monthly revenue since May last year at NT$75.5 billion (US$2.6 billion) for last month.
This was down 12.3 percent from November’s NT$86.05 billion, and down 17.5 percent from NT$91.47 billion a year ago.
“The drop in revenue was due mainly to delays in shipments of Apple Inc’s iPad Mini and iPad 4 tablets last month,” Fubon Securities Investment Services Co (富邦投顧) analyst Arthur Liao (廖顯毅) said by telephone yesterday.
The firm’s total revenue for last year fell 10 percent to NT$972.6 billion from NT$1.81 trillion in 2011.
Liao expected Quanta’s sales to grow this quarter as it has received orders to make Amazon.com Inc’s Fire tablet and Google Inc’s Nexus 7 tablet.
Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦), the world’s second-largest contract laptop maker, yesterday reported NT$60.77 billion in consolidated revenue last month, down 4.1 percent from NT$63.35 billion in November.
That was an increase of 15.2 percent compared with NT$52.87 in the same period a year ago.
Compal’s consolidated revenue for last year slipped 1.4 percent from NT$693.12 billion in 2011 to NT$682.77 billion.
The world’s No. 3 contract laptop maker, Wistron Corp (緯創), said revenue dropped 4.2 percent to NT$55.41 billion last month, compared with NT$57.87 billion in November and down 16.38 percent from NT$66.27 billion a year ago.
For the whole of last year, Wistron’s sales fell slightly to NT$657.83 billion from NT$658.24 billion in 2011, which was a record high.
Liao forecast that Wistron’s sales would bounce back this month because its client Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) may increase orders ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday.
Wistron said it shipped 31.55 million laptops, little changed from 2011’s 31.5 million units.
Smaller contract laptop maker Inventec Corp (英業達) posted NT$28.85 billion of revenue for last month, down 2.4 percent compared with NT$29.56 billion in the previous month.
The firm posted revenue of NT$320.47 billion last year, down from 2011’s NT$338.42 billion.
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