Despite uncertainties over the outlook for the nation's economy, two local notebook computer manufacturers said yesterday they remained optimistic on sales this year.
One of the major players in the industry, Compal Electronics (仁寶電腦), exceeded its own expectations last year, said a staff member who wished to remain anonymous.
Compal sold 23 million notebook computers, even though sales last month fell approximately 20 percent when compared to November, he said.
So far, worries over the US economy do not seem to have affected sales of notebook computers, he said.
The dip in sales last month did not prevent an estimated 8 percent growth in the overall notebook market from the third to fourth quarter last year.
Compal believes the trend of replacing desktop computers with notebook computers would continue, with notebook computers growing at 25 percent to 30 percent while desktop computer growth would hover at between 5 percent and 6 percent, he said.
Compal is confident of another strong sales performance this year, expecting 30 percent growth to 30 million units, he said.
In line with Compal's estimates, the nation's leading notebook computer manufacturer, AsusTek Computers (Asus, 華碩電腦), is also predicting a better year, notebook products manager Jose Liao (廖逸翔) said.
Asus' entry level model, the Eee PC, has been very well received by the market and was the stellar performer at the year-end computer show in Taipei, a statement on the company's Web site said.
Even discounting sales of the Eee PC, Asus sold 350,000 notebook computers in Taiwan alone last year, Liao said.
Rival computer maker Acer Inc performed very well in Europe and Russia, but continued to be unable to catch Asus in the domestic market.
With the release of new products and a concerted advertising strategy, Acer only lagged behind Asus by 1 percentage point in market share, 32 percent compared to Asus' 33 percent, in the third quarter, market research conducted by IDC showed.
However, Asus believes its product line-up and customer service would enable it to obtain a 30 percent growth in sales this year and enable it to keep hold of its market share, Liao said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) yesterday said that Intel Corp would find itself in the same predicament as it did four years ago if its board does not come up with a core business strategy. Chang made the remarks in response to reporters’ questions about the ailing US chipmaker, once an archrival of TSMC, during a news conference in Taipei for the launch of the second volume of his autobiography. Intel unexpectedly announced the immediate retirement of former chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger last week, ending his nearly four-year tenure and ending his attempts to revive the
WORLD DOMINATION: TSMC’s lead over second-placed Samsung has grown as the latter faces increased Chinese competition and the end of clients’ product life cycles Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) retained the No. 1 title in the global pure-play wafer foundry business in the third quarter of this year, seeing its market share growing to 64.9 percent to leave South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co, the No. 2 supplier, further behind, Taipei-based TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report. TSMC posted US$23.53 billion in sales in the July-September period, up 13.0 percent from a quarter earlier, which boosted its market share to 64.9 percent, up from 62.3 percent in the second quarter, the report issued on Monday last week showed. TSMC benefited from the debut of flagship
A former ASML Holding NV employee is facing a lawsuit in the Netherlands over suspected theft of trade secrets, Dutch public broadcaster NOS said, in the latest breach of the maker of advanced chip-manufacturing equipment. The 43-year-old Russian engineer, who is suspected of stealing documents such as microchip manuals from ASML, is expected to appear at a court in Rotterdam today, NOS reported on Friday. He is accused of multiple violations of the sanctions legislation and has been given a 20-year entry ban by the Dutch government, the report said. The Dutch company makes machines needed to produce high-end chips that power
As South Korea descends into political chaos, its equity market risks falling further behind major tech rival Taiwan, which is basking in the glory of a global artificial intelligence (AI) boom. A near-30 percent surge in Taiwan’s stock benchmark this year, set to be the best since 2009, has already helped spur a historic divergence between Asia’s two tech-dominated markets. The nation’s market capitalization now exceeds South Korea’s by about US$950 billion as the world’s AI frontrunners from Nvidia Corp and Microsoft Corp to OpenAI all increasingly turn to Taiwanese firms for supply. Looking ahead to next year, while both export-oriented economies