Hon Hai Wins Power Mac G5 contract order

Taipei, Aug. 28, 2003 (CENS)--Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Ind. Co. Ltd. Recently won a contract order for the Power Mac G5 super-speed personal computer from Apple Computer Inc. of the U.S. and began delivery from late June, according to Apple Taiwan.

Apple Taiwan said that the Power Mac G5 is the world's fastest personal computer and the first with a 64-bit processor--which means it breaks the 4-gigabyte barrier and can use up to 8-gigabytes of main memory. The new G5 processor, which is available at speeds up to dual 2GHz with a new ultrahigh-bandwidth system architecture featuring AGP 8X and PCI-X, makes the Power Mac G5 a breakthrough in desktop processing power.

Apple Taiwan demonstrated the Power Mac G5 in the island on August 26 and said that the American parent firm has received orders for over 100,000 units of such new model. The Power Mac G5 starts at US$2,000 to US$3,200 (monitor is not included), making it a high-price model.

Most institutional investors deem that the Power Mac G5 contract order will have positive meaning to Hon Hai's revenue this year. Hon Hai, the world's No. 1 maker of barebone PCs and connectors, has not publicized its first-half financial report but the market estimated that the company would generate a after-tax earning of NT$3 to T$4 (US$0.09 to US$0.12 at US$1: NT$34.2) during the period.

With a product-multiplication policy, Hon Hai's revenue continued to go up in the first seven months to NT$149.9 billion (US$4.38 billion), up 23% from last year's same period, and the company is expected to maintain its position as the No. 1 private manufacturer in Taiwan this year.

Apple Taiwan president Dong Jun-liang attributed the hot sales of the Power Mac G5 to its superior computing performance in both standard and professional application software over the fastest Pentium-4 and the dual-processor Xeon workstation systems.