Inventec Corp (英業達), an assembler of Apple Inc’s AirPods and HomePods, remains optimistic about its shipments of “smart” devices this quarter, despite Apple delaying the launch of the HomePod to the first quarter of next year.
“Total shipments of Inventec’s smart devices this quarter is to outpace last quarter by a mid-single-digit percentage as we forecast, reaching a peak for this year,” an Inventec official said by telephone.
Inventec’s plants in Shanghai and Nanjing, China, are running at their full capacity to meet robust demand for smart devices this quarter, the official added.
The US company earlier this month pushed the release date of its Siri-powered HomePod smart speaker from next month to early next year, saying in a statement that “it needs more time before the product is ready for customers.”
The HomePod is to be released in the US, the UK and Australia early next year, the statement said.
Investors have been worried that the delayed launch of the HomePod would negatively affect Inventec’s shipments of smart devices this quarter, as the company is the main assembler for the product.
Inventec shares have fallen 2.17 percent in the past month, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
“Investors might have overreacted. The shipment schedules for Inventec’s smart devices across the board remain unchanged this quarter,” the official said.
Inventec’s smartphones and wireless earpieces would be the main growth engines for the smart devices business this quarter, while shipments of smart speakers were expected to be limited in the initial stages, the official said.
The firm’s largest smartphone client, China’s Xiaomi Corp (小米), announced that it reached its annual shipment forecast of 70 million handsets last month, two months ahead of schedule.
Inventec and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) each have a 50 percent share of smartphone orders from Xiaomi, according to industry sources.
Although Inventec declined to specify its wireless earpieces client, it is widely believed that Inventec receives 100 percent of the orders for Apple’s AirPods, an estimated of 20 million units a year, industry sources told the Taipei Times.
Inventec Appliance Co (英華達) chief executive David Ho (何代水) on Nov. 9 told investors that Inventec is expected to achieve its annual target of shipping 70 million smart devices by the end of this year.
Inventec’s smart devices segment accounted for 19.2 percent of its total revenue of NT$123.96 billion (US$4.13 billion) last quarter, company data showed.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary
RSS