Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) is stepping up its foray into the virtual reality (VR) industry with plans to start taking preorders for its VR-ready gaming desktops for the local market at the end of this month, chief executive officer Jerry Shen (沈振來) said yesterday.
“While the environment is very challenging, we have to continue upholding the company’s core value of innovation. We will take more aggressive efforts in the VR field,” Shen told an investors’ conference at the firm’s headquarters in Taipei.
Two of Asustek’s gaming desktops have been certified by Facebook Inc-owned Oculus VR Inc to support the US firm’s first virtual-reality headset Rift, with preorders for the US market having started on Tuesday, he said.
Photo: CNA
Oculus is offering a special price of US$949 for preorders of the Rift bundled with Asustek’s G11CD desktop.
Taiwan is to follow suit, with preorders starting either at the end of this month or the beginning of next month, Shen said.
Asustek’s VR-ready products will also be available in the Netherlands later this year, he added.
Asustek expects to start shipping the VR-ready desktops in April, the company said.
In addition to VR-ready computers, Asustek plans to unveil VR and augmented-reality (AR)-ready smartphones in the fourth quarter at the earliest to expand the firm’s reach in the field, Shen said.
Commenting on the firm’s smartphone business, Shen said the company has lowered its annual shipment target by 16.66 percent to 25 million units this year from its prior forecast of 30 million handsets after pushing back the launch date for its flagship model this year.
The revised target still represents an annual increase of 25 percent from last year’s 20 million handsets, Asustek said.
“We could introduce the ZenFone 3 in April, but we want the product to be perfect, so we have postponed the launch date to Computex Taipei in June,” Shen said.
Shen said that company chairman Jonney Shih (施崇棠) also plans to unveil Asustek’s first consumer service robot during the Computex trade show this year.
Asustek chief financial officer Nick Wu (吳長榮) said the company expects slower smartphone sales in the first half of this year, but the shipment momentum should pick up after the launch of the ZenFone 3.
The company expects to ship 20 million notebooks this year, up 3.62 percent from last year’s 19.3 million units, Wu said, adding: “Our goal is to outperform the industry by 5 percent to 10 percent this year.”
Wu said that exchange rate volatility could be a variable factor to Asustek’s operations this year, and the company intends to take risk-management measures to avoid letting it impact its core business.
Analysts forecast that Asustek’s revenues this quarter would be flattish compared with the first quarter of last year when it posted NT$111.88 billion (US$3.34 billion).
Asustek on Monday reported a net profit of NT$17.09 billion for last year, down 12 percent from NT$19.47 billion the previous year, partly due to currency-exchange losses.
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