Posted on Sunday, November 02 2008 @ 20:20 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
X-bit Labs
ASUS aims to increase its notebook shipments to 20 million units in 2009, up from 11.3 million this year. If the firm hits the target, it will become world's fourth largest notebook maker.
According to Taiwan Economic News, Asustek ranks as between No. 5 and No. 7 brands of notebook PCs in the world this year, depending on market surveys by different tracking companies. With 20 million notebook units shipped next year, Asus is very likely to unseat Lenovo, Toshiba and Apple as world’s fourth-largest notebook brand in 2009, only trailing HP, Dell and Acer.
Mr. Shih noted that Asustek pins most of its hopes on Asus Eee PC netbooks that are already very successful. Asus-branded notebooks are usually sold at premium price-points, hence, considering the current market conditions it is unlikely to expect them to become considerably more popular. It should be kept in mind that it will hardly be easy for Asus to boost sales of Eee PCs considerably since there are more and more competitive offerings on the market.
Global netbook sales are estimated to hit 30 million units in 2009, with ASUS accounting for 8 to 10 million units.
