Taiwan's shipments of NB PCs recessed in Q1

Taipei, May 30, 2005 (CENS)--Taiwan's notebook computer market is suffering a rare recession as deliveries of the products hit a new low of 118,000 units in the first quarter of this year, according to statistics compiled by the industry researcher International Data Corporation (IDC).

Of the major NB vendors, Asustek Computer Inc., Acer Inc. and Hewlett Packard Taiwan each saw a 20% annual decline in shipment of NBs in the first quarter. International Business Machines Taiwan, whose computer unit was acquired by mainland China's Lenovo Group, posted an amazing 50% slide in the same period.

The IDC's statistics showed Taiwan's NB market is facing a drastic vibration in the wake of the shutdown of some heavyweight distributors since the end of last year. Other factor causing the sluggishness of the market is the lack of new applications of the product in the information-technology sector.

Domestic IT distributors, including Synnex Technology International Corp., Genuine C&C Inc. and Bestcom Infotech Corp. recorded negative annual sales growth of 10% in the first quarter.

IDC said the rankings of domestic NB vendors remained unchanged in the first quarter, with Asustek standing firmly as the largest vendor, followed by Acer, HP Taiwan, and IBM Taiwan.

Asustek sold 37,000 NBs with a 31% share of the local market in the first quarter. IBM Taiwan saw shipments of NBs decline by 50% to reach 10,000 units in the first quarter from 20,000 units posted in the fourth quarter of last year.

An industry analyst said the sharp decline of the domestic NB market is mainly caused by intense competition. Seeing the sluggish outcome of the Taipei Software and Computer (Spring) Show held May 5-9 at the Taipei World Trade Center, many domestic NB manufacturers hold a more conservative attitude toward their sales performance in the second quarter.

Nevertheless, domestic NB vendors still bet on the Sonoma platform newly launched by Intel Corp. At present half of domestically produced NBs have adopted the Sonoma platform capable of providing multimedia functions.