By Jenny W. Hsu and Paul Mozur, Dow Jones Newswires
Tuesday 03 May 2011
Taiwanese vendor says it is on track to meet target of 300,000 tablets shipped in current quarter.
Taiwanese personal computer maker Asustek Computer Inc. said Friday its own-branded tablets launched earlier this month are being well-received in China and the U.S. and it is planning to launch more new models in the coming month.
Like other PC makers, Asustek has been catching up with Apple Inc. following the wild success of iPad since last year. Asustek started selling its 10-inch "Eee Pad Transformer" tablet early April, using Google Inc.'s Android operating system with a retail price starting at US$505 for a 16-gigabyte model.
Chief Executive Jerry Shen said in a news conference that the company is on course to meet its target of shipping 300,000 tablets in the current quarter.
Click here to find out more!"We did encounter disruptions in the supply chain in March and April but it is almost resolved. Some components are still tight but at least not in shortage," Shen said, adding Asustek aims to take a 10% share of the global tablet PC market this year.
Global shipment of tablet PCs are expected to more than triple to nearly 61 million this year from 18 million last year, according to industry tracker iSuppli, as more customers are switching to smaller mobile devices to write emails and surf the Internet.
"Asustek tablets may fare well this quarter because many people find the Android-based device easy to use. But the good days may not last because competitors such as Sony and Toshiba are chasing closely," said Jenny Lai, an analyst at HSBC.
Having said that, notebook PCs will remain Asustek's major revenue contributor going forward, Shen added. A rising market share in Asia and Europe has led the Taipei-based company to expect its second-quarter notebook PC shipments to rise 11% to 3.1 million from 2.8 million in the first quarter.
Revenue in the second quarter will likely be flat to rising 5% from the first quarter, he added.
Asustek, the world's largest maker of motherboards by shipments, said earlier this week its net profit for the three months ended March 31 was NT$3.42 billion, down from NT$4.94 billion a year earlier.
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