Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) yesterday said that the outlook for the notebook industry is better this quarter than it was for the previous quarter, supported by the upcoming 2015 IT Month in Taipei and traditional peak season.
“The inventory correction has accelerated significantly since the beginning of this quarter,” Lenovo Taiwan general manager Paul Tseng (曾純浩) told reporters on the sidelines of the company’s notebook and tablet product launch event in Taipei.
Citing international institutions’ forecast for the global economy, Tseng said: “It is widely believed that the outlook for next year will also improve from this year.”
Tseng said most of Lenovo’s products at retail outlets in Taiwan are still Microsoft Corp’s Windows 8-based notebook computers, but the company decided to ship more Windows 10-based products this quarter on the back of an accelerating inventory digestion.
The Chinese PC vendor yesterday launched the high-end commercial notebook ThinkPad X250, gaming notebook IdeaPad Y700 and tablet Yoga Tap 3 Pro in Taiwan.
The company also introduced an online platform to target the nation’s e-commerce market for notebook computers.
“We are positive that Lenovo will continue to grow in Taiwan’s consumer notebook market,” Tseng said.
Lenovo still has no plan to raise its notebook prices in the Taiwan market, but Tseng did not deny the possibility of future price hikes.
“PC vendors are under great pressure this year due to rising costs because of volatile currency changes,” he said.
Meanwhile, Taiwanese PC brand Acer Inc (宏碁) said it is busy preparing shipments for three cloud-computing products this quarter, Acer founder and former chairman Stan Shih (施振榮) told reporters on the sidelines of an Internet of Things conference hosted by the Great Wall Club.
However, Shih said it will take some time for the firm’s cloud-computing segment to “take off.”
“We need more time, and we need to invest more resources in the segment,” Shih said, declining to disclose a timeframe of when the segment is expected to contribute meaningful revenues to the firm.
Separately, Shih said he conditionally supports the government’s plan to ease regulations on Chinese investments in Taiwan’s IC design industry.
“As long as [Chinese] investments can create value for both sides of the firms, and the intellectual properties of the Taiwanese firms are well protected, the investments could be a good thing,” Shih said.
“There are no country borders for global business,” he said.
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