Posted on Monday, June 16 2008 @ 0:00 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
Despite the Intel Atom processor shortage, ASUS president Jerry Shen
aims to ship more than five million Eee PC notebooks this year.
Shen projected Asustek will ship a total of 6.6 million notebooks (excluding Eee PCs) in 2008, up from 4.3 million units in 2007. Despite more rivals introducing low-cost PCs, Shen is confident that Asustek will ship over five million Eee PCs this year. Commenting on IDC's low-cost notebook (netbook) forecast of about three million units, Shen said the estimate is too conservative. Asustek reiterated that the market size should hit 10 million, meaning the company will grab a 50% market share.
Regarding component shortages, Shen said the current battery shortage is expected to ease in July, whereas shortages of Intel Atom processors may persist through September. Since Asustek adopts both Atom and Celeron M CPUs from Intel, Shen stressed that the company is able to minimize the risk from possible shortages.
