Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) hopes the launch of its next-generation smartphone — the ZenFone 3 — in June will help boost growth momentum in the second half of this year, a company official said on Friday.
“We expect to introduce the new flagship smartphone at the end of June and start mass production in July,” Asustek chief financial officer Nick Wu (吳長榮) said in a telephone interview.
Together with the launches of other handsets in the second half of the year, the company aims to sell 25 million smartphones this year, an increase of 25 percent from last year’s 20 million units.
The company in February cut its annual shipment target for smartphones from 30 million units to 25 million units.
The smartphone business for the first half of the year is likely to remain flattish or increase slightly from the 8 million units sold over the same period last year, as the product cycle of the ZenFone 2 series gradually dissipates, the company said.
Analysts said the company would need to ship 17 million units between July and December to reach its annual target.
However, as the Zenfone series becomes more complete, it will serve as a stronger growth driver for Asustek, they said.
The company’s goal of a 25 percent annual increase in smartphone shipments is higher than the global average of 7 percent forecast by international research house Gartner Inc on March 31.
It also underlines chief executive officer Jerry Shen’s (沈振來) efforts to improve the firm’s smartphone marketing strategies.
Shen in February said that Asustek aims to focus on fast-growing emerging markets this year such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines and India.
The firm also plans to introduce a limited number of higher-margin smartphones in the regions in a bid to have a deeper and closer relationship with consumers there, he said.
Shen said the company hopes to see its market share in Indonesia increase to 18 percent this year from 15 percent last year and from 2 percent to 5 percent in India.
Compared with the company’s aggressiveness in the smartphone business, Asustek is conservative about the outlook of its tablet segment, after seeing an annual decline of 37.23 percent in shipments last year amid softening demand.
In the first quarter of this year, the company only shipped 1 million tablets, down 33.33 percent from 1.5 million units a year ago, Wu said.
Wu said the company also plans to introduce new tablets in June and will continue improving its operation efficiency in the tablet segment in a bid to increase tablet shipments in the second half.
However, the persistent weak demand for tablets worldwide will weigh on Asustek’s tablet shipments this year, which are likely to remain flat from last year’s 5.9 million units, Wu said.
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
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
GROWTH: TSMC increased its projected revenue growth for this year to more than 25 percent, citing stronger-than-expected demand for AI devices and smartphones The Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台灣經濟研究院) yesterday raised its forecast for Taiwan’s GDP growth this year from 3.29 percent to 3.85 percent, as exports and private investment recovered faster than it predicted three months ago. The Taipei-based think tank also expects that Taiwan would see a 8.19 percent increase in exports this year, better than the 7.55 percent it projected in April, as US technology giants spent more money on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and development. “There will be more AI servers going forward, but it remains to be seen if the momentum would extend to personal computers, smartphones and
Catastrophic computer outages caused by a software update from one company have once again exposed the dangers of global technological dependence on a handful of players, experts said on Friday. A flawed update sent out by the little-known security firm CrowdStrike Holdings Inc brought airlines, TV stations and myriad other aspects of daily life to a standstill. The outages affected companies or individuals that use CrowdStrike on the Microsoft Inc’s Windows platform. When they applied the update, the incompatible software crashed computers into a frozen state known as the “blue screen of death.” “Today CrowdStrike has become a household name, but not in