Inventec Corp (英業達) chairman Richard Lee (李詩欽) yesterday confirmed the company is making Xiaomi Inc’s (小米) first notebook computer product in China, with shipments set to begin in the first half of next year.
“I am upbeat about the business outlook for Xiaomi’s notebook computers, as the firm has more than 200 million registered smartphone users,” Lee told reporters on the sidelines of the 12th cross-strait forum on technical standards for information technology held in New Taipei City.
Lee said Xiaomi is likely to adopt the same smartphone business strategy for its laptop products — which is different from other companies’ conventional way of selling servers, desktop and notebook computers.
“I am not sure if the smartphone approach will be applicable to notebooks, but I expect Xiaomi’s entry into the notebook industry to bring something new to the market,” Lee said.
Subsidiary Inventec Appliance Corp (英華達), which assembles Xiaomi’s smartphones, is to jointly design and manufacture the Chinese company’s first notebook products in Inventec’s plants in China, Lee said.
“We will start shipping Xiaomi’s notebook computers in the first or second quarter of next year,” he added.
Commenting on Inventec’s near-term business outlook, Lee said next quarter’s sales are likely to be flat or even decline from this quarter, because of few product launches by its clients.
“Given that some of Inventec’s clients are scheduled to launch new products at the end of next quarter, sales contributions from the new products will be limited next quarter, but should become significant next year,” he said.
Inventec president Huang Kuo-chun (黃國鈞) last month said that sales for this quarter would grow significantly from the second quarter’s NT$90.62 billion (US$2.75 billion), supported by growing orders for commercial notebooks, smart devices and servers.
Local media have reported that Inventec is joining the supply chain of US company Fitbit Inc’s wearable products as a joint design manufacturer.
Lee did not confirm or deny such speculation, but said the company would start shipping wearable products for a new client next quarter.
Overall, the company’s combined sales in the second half of this year would still be better than the NT$179.99 billion it made in the first half of this year, he said.
Inventec shares rose 1.2 percent to close at NT$16.90 in Taipei trading yesterday, outperforming the TAIEX, which edged up 0.71 percent.
PATENTS: MediaTek Inc said it would not comment on ongoing legal cases, but does not expect the legal action by Huawei to affect its business operations Smartphone integrated chips designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) on Friday said that a lawsuit filed by Chinese smartphone brand Huawei Technologies Co (華為) over alleged patent infringements would have little impact on its operations. In an announcement posted on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, MediaTek said that it would not comment on an ongoing legal case. However, the company said that Huawei’s legal action would have little impact on its operations. MediaTek’s statement came after China-based PRIP Research said on Thursday that Huawei filed a lawsuit with a Chinese district court claiming that MediaTek infringed on its patents. The infringement mentioned in the lawsuit likely involved
EXPECTATIONS: The firm, which is on track to outpace global foundry industry revenue growth, said it expects constrained advanced process capacity amid stronger AI demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday increased its projected revenue growth for this year to above 25 percent, as stronger-than-expected demand for premium smartphones and artificial intelligence (AI) devices are to drive greater utilization of cutting-edge 3-nanometer and 5-nanometer chips. In April TSMC estimated 21 to 24 percent annual growth. The firm’s revenue growth is on track to greatly outpace the global foundry industry, which is expected to rise about 10 percent this year. “Over the past three months, we have observed stronger AI and high-end smartphone demand from our customers, which is to boost the overall capacity utilization for our leading-edge
Taipei is today suspending work, classes and its US$2.4 trillion stock market as Typhoon Gaemi approaches Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain. The nation is not conducting securities, currency or fixed income trading, statements from its stock and currency exchanges said. Authorities had yesterday issued a warning that the storm could affect people on land and canceled some ship crossings and domestic flights. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) expects its local chipmaking fabs to maintain normal production, the company said in an e-mailed statement. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp said it has activated routine typhoon alert
SEMICONDUCTORS: Taiwan is the company’s fastest-growing market due to growing demand for advanced equipment, Advantest Taiwan chairman Alex Wu said Advantest Corp, the world’s largest chip testing equipment supplier, yesterday said that stronger-than-expected demand from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) has stretched to far longer than the expected six months, driven by a surge in demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance-computing (HPC) applications. Normally lead times range from three to four months, but as a majority of AI and HPC chips are packaged using advanced packaging technology, chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, it requires a longer and more complex testing process to ensure every semiconductor die works well before being packaged together, Advantest said. As a result, demand for Advantest’s equipment is running high, the
RSS