Company representatives from around the world will be able to put their hands on ultra-thin laptops running on Microsoft Corp’s highly anticipated new operating system at Computex Taipei next month, one of the organizers said.
This year at Computex, visitors will see a preview of Windows 8-based Ultrabooks, said Enoch Du (杜全昌), secretary-general of the Taipei Computer Association (TCA, 台北市電腦公會), which co-organizes the world’s second-largest tech trade fair.
“Although Microsoft is very cautious about the launch, vendors in fact are ready to offer the Windows 8 devices, including Ultrabooks, tablet computers and smart handheld devices,” he said in an interview recently.
“You can put your hands on the models and use them,” Du added. “With the release of the Windows 8, there will be a big jump in Ultrabook [sales] volumes.”
In the fourth quarter of last year, the world’s top five PC vendors all introduced Ultrabook-type products, but their price tags exceeded US$1,000, making them less attractive, according to DRAMexchange Technology Inc (集邦科技).
The average notebook price is about US$650 this year, so Ultrabook prices need to dip below US$700 to be acceptable to consumers, the research firm said.
Factoring in the expected price cut, Ultrabook shipments are forecast at 20 million units this year, accounting for 10 percent of total notebook shipments, compared with 2 percent last year, it predicted.
Meanwhile, the PC industry chain will see a big change in business models, such as the integration of mobile chipsets designed by ARM Holdings PLC, which are widely used in Android-based smartphones and tablet PCs to lower power consumption, Du said.
Intel Corp, which supplies processors for Ultrabooks, has forecast that the category might be priced as low as US$599 in the second half of this year, when manufacturers use new and cheaper casing materials, such as a mixture of plastics and aluminum.
The US chipmaker projected that the new models to be launched in the third and fourth quarter would support new functions, such as touch-enabled screens and gesture sensors, which would help drive overall demand.
For this year as a whole, Intel expected Ultrabooks to account for between 30 and 40 percent of global notebook shipments, thanks to the introduction of lower-priced models.
However, Du said that 20 percent would be a more reasonable penetration rate this year, because Intel’s forecast looks more like a long-term target.
“The pricing for Ultrabooks is related to the total volume,” he said. “When the volume increases, component costs drop and then lower the retail prices, driving a virtuous cycle.”
“I’m optimistic that Ultrabooks will become cheaper and cheaper, but it will be quite difficult to see US$599 models this year,” Du said.
Last month, Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) said Ultrabooks would gain more momentum in the second half of this year thanks to an increase in the supply of new chipsets and the expected launch of the new Windows system.
Asustek plans to roll out a number of new Ultrabooks priced from US$799 to US$1,999 starting in the current quarter, and the company expects the category to account for between 10 and 20 percent of its notebook shipments this year.
Separately, Acer Inc (宏碁) has reduced its Ultrabook prices to as low as US$799 in selected regions, but the price has remained too high for many consumers, compared with a price tag of between US$400 and US$500 for mainstream notebooks.
Acer projected that Ultrabooks will account for between 12 and 20 percent of its notebook shipments by the end of this year, which would be lower than the 25 to 35 percent that the company forecast earlier, because of less promotion by the industry.
Computex Taipei, to be held from June 5 to June 9, is expected to attract more than 36,000 international buyers and generate US$28 billion in business, up from US$25 billion last year, the organizers estimated.
TRADE WAR: Tariffs should also apply to any goods that pass through the new Beijing-funded port in Chancay, Peru, an adviser to US president-elect Donald Trump said A veteran adviser to US president-elect Donald Trump is proposing that the 60 percent tariffs that Trump vowed to impose on Chinese goods also apply to goods from any country that pass through a new port that Beijing has built in Peru. The duties should apply to goods from China or countries in South America that pass through the new deep-water port Chancay, a town 60km north of Lima, said Mauricio Claver-Carone, an adviser to the Trump transition team who served as senior director for the western hemisphere on the White House National Security Council in his first administration. “Any product going
TECH SECURITY: The deal assures that ‘some of the most sought-after technology on the planet’ returns to the US, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said The administration of US President Joe Biden finalized its CHIPS Act incentive awards for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), marking a major milestone for a program meant to bring semiconductor production back to US soil. TSMC would get US$6.6 billion in grants as part of the contract, the US Department of Commerce said in a statement yesterday. Though the amount was disclosed earlier this year as part of a preliminary agreement, the deal is now legally binding — making it the first major CHIPS Act award to reach this stage. The chipmaker, which is also taking up to US$5 billion
High above the sparkling surface of the Athens coastline, the cranes for building the 50-floor luxury tower centerpiece of Greece’s future “smart city” look out over the Saronic Gulf. At their feet, construction machinery stirs up dust. Its backers say the 8 billion euro (US$8.43 billion) project financed by private funds is a symbol of Greece’s renaissance after the years of financial stagnation that saw investors flee the country. However, critics see it more as a future “ghetto for the rich.” It is hard to imagine that 10km from the Acropolis, a new city “three times the size of Monaco”
STRUGGLING BUSINESS: South Korea’s biggest company and semiconductor manufacturer’s buyback fuels concerns that it could be missing out on the AI boom Samsung Electronics Co plans to buy back about 10 trillion won (US$7.2 billion) of its own stock over the next year, putting in motion one of the larger shareholder return programs in its history. South Korea’s biggest company would repurchase the stock in stages over the coming 12 months, it said in a regulatory filing on Friday. As a first step, it would buy back about 3 trillion won of paper starting today up until February next year, all of which it would cancel. The board would deliberate on how best to effect the remaining 7 trillion won of buybacks. The move
RSS