In response to competitors and research firms naming his company as one of the PC brand vendors that will quit the PC market, Asustek Computer CEO Jerry Shen pointed out that Asustek has always been one of the top-notch vendors in terms of gross margins, and the criticism only shows that Asustek has strong competitiveness in the market and the company is optimistic about becoming the largest vendor in the consumer notebook market by 2017.
As for the enterprise notebook market, Asustek will continue strengthening its competitiveness, Shen said.
Shen noted that Asustek had been adjusting its notebook projects and retail channel and marketing strategies during the first eight months of 2015 and with weak market demand, the company only shipped 13.9 million notebooks in the first three months of 2015. Although its fourth-quarter shipments are expected to rise to 5.2 million units, its annual shipments will still only reach 19.1 million units, weaker than the 20.3 million of 2014.
As for 2016, Shen expects overall notebook shipments to remain flat from 2015, but Asustek is looking to achieve a small on-year growth.
Though Asustek will suffer a notebook shipment decline in 2015, the company's strong shipments in high-price ZenBook and gaming notebooks still boosted the company's overall product ASP. Currently, of the shipments of notebooks using Nvidia GTX graphics cards, 40% are supplied by Asustek.
Asustek's gaming notebook shipments in 2015 will double from 2014 and the volume will have a chance to grow another 50% in 2016. As for the ZenBook series, the 13-inch model has taken the lead in market share compared to other 13-inch Windows-based ultrabook competitors. ZenBook's shipments will grow 200% on year in 2015 and the growth in 2016 is expected to be at least 100%.
ZenBook and gaming notebooks combined will contribute over 10% of Asustek's overall revenues from the notebook business in 2015 and the percentage will break 20% in 2016.
Shen pointed out that Microsoft's Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book are seeing increasing demand and Asustek plans to follow suit and launch three new devices with designs similar to the Surface 2-in-1s but with several improvement. These devices will also target the same market sector as the Surface, but they will be cheaper.
In addition to these high-end 2-in-1s, Asustek will also upgrade its Transformer T100 for the mid-range and entry-level sectors. Shen expects that the global 2-in-1 device shipments will reach around 20 million units in 2015 and will surpass 30 million units in 2016, accounting for 20% of the overall notebook shipments and Asustek will ship four million 2-in-1s in 2016.
Shen expects Asustek's shipments of mobile devices, including tablets and handsets, to reach 26.6 million units and shipments of PCs including notebooks and desktops, to reach 21.3 million units in 2015. With the company's mobile device shipments already surpassing those of PC, Asustek expects mobile devices' revenue contribution will surpass that of PC in 2018.
Source: Digitimes
