The nation’s leading contract notebook computer manufacturers should see shipments regain growth momentum this quarter, after shipments weakened last quarter due to supply constraints and the effect of the Lunar New Year holiday, local media reported last week.
However, it remains unclear how shipments from the nation’s five major notebook computer original design manufacturers (ODMs) would fare in the second half of the year, amid uncertainty over possible key component shortages, logistics bottlenecks due to COVID-19 lockdowns and rising inflationary pressure, the reports said.
The five companies are Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶), Wistron Corp (緯創), Inventec Corp (英華達) and Pegatron Corp (和碩). As Taiwan’s notebook computer ODMs account for more than 90 percent of global production, their shipment momentum has a high correlation with the dynamic of the global market.
Photo: Reuters
Global notebook computer shipments grew 19 percent year-on-year to 268 million units last year because of strong commercial demand in the final quarter of the year, Boston-based research firm Strategy Analytics said in a report on Jan. 31.
Strategy Analytics attributed the fourth-quarter performance to Windows 11 enterprise upgrades, which gave Windows notebook computers a boost during the quarter across all regions, despite a slowdown in Chromebook demand in the second half of last year.
In the first quarter of this year, shipments from the nation’s top five notebook ODMs reached 41.6 million to 41.7 million units, representing a quarterly decrease of nearly 20 percent, according to data compiled from the companies’ latest revenue updates released on Friday.
Quanta, the world’s largest contract notebook maker, shipped 16.9 million units last quarter, down 15 percent quarterly and 11 percent annually, while Compal, the world’s No. 2 contract laptop maker, reported shipments of 11.8 million units, down 26.7 percent from the previous quarter and 9.9 percent lower than a year earlier, company data showed.
Wistron, Inventec and Pegatron reported shipments of 5.6 million, 5 million and 2.3 million to 2.4 million units respectively, down 25.66 percent, 10.71 percent and 20 percent from the previous quarter.
On a yearly basis, the three makers’ shipments increased from 3.7 percent to 5 percent, as demand for hybrid work environments supported the developed market’s growth, while customers’ shift toward mobility boosted the emerging market.
The five ODMs said they have clear order visibility through the end of the first half of the year, with Inventec expecting a slight growth in notebook shipments this quarter, while Compal and Wistron forecast shipments would grow about 10 percent compared with the first quarter.
Pegatron also maintained its previous forecast and estimated that second-quarter shipments would increase by 25 to 30 percent from the first quarter, but Quanta said it was difficult to provide guidance for second-quarter shipments due to uncertainties.
Given the lingering shortage of key components and lockdowns in Shanghai and Kunshan, China, the five ODMs said that the adverse effects from the disease prevention measures on the notebook computer supply chain were expected to emerge later this month, local media reported.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would also affect the European market, while rising global inflation and port congestion would also impact shipments in the second half of the year, the companies said.
Apple Inc has closed in on an agreement with OpenAI to use the start-up’s technology on the iPhone, part of a broader push to bring artificial intelligence (AI) features to its devices, people familiar with the matter said. The two sides have been finalizing terms for a pact to use ChatGPT features in Apple’s iOS 18, the next iPhone operating system, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the situation is private. Apple also has held talks with Alphabet Inc’s Google about licensing its Gemini chatbot. Those discussions have not led to an agreement, but are ongoing. An OpenAI
INSATIABLE: Almost all AI innovators are working with the chipmaker to address the rapidly growing AI-related demand for energy-efficient computing power, the CEO said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported about 60 percent annual growth in revenue for last month, benefiting from rapidly growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing applications. Revenue last month expanded to NT$236.02 billion (US$7.28 billion), compared with NT$147.9 billion in April last year, the second-highest level in company history, TSMC said in a statement. On a monthly basis, revenue surged 20.9 percent, from NT$195.21 billion in March. As AI-related applications continue to show strong growth, TSMC expects revenue to expand about 27.6 percent year-on-year during the current quarter to between US$19.6 billion and US$20.4 billion. That would
‘FULL SUPPORT’: Kumamoto Governor Takashi Kimura said he hopes more companies would settle in the prefecture to create an area similar to Taiwan’s Hsinchu Science Park The newly elected governor of Japan’s Kumamoto Prefecture said he is ready to ensure wide-ranging support to woo Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to build its third Japanese chip factory there. Concerns of groundwater shortages when TSMC’s two plants begin operations in the prefecture’s Kikuyo have spurred discussions about the possibility of tapping unused dam water, Kumamoto Governor Takashi Kimura said in an interview on Saturday. While Kimura said talks about a third plant have yet to occur, Bloomberg had reported TSMC is already considering its third Japanese fab — also in Kumamoto — which would make more advanced chips. “We are
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been