ASUS sees drop in netbook sales due to iPad

DigiTimes writes Asustek's netbook shipments are suffering from competition with Apple's iPad. Last quarter the company shipped 1.5 million units, even even though the third quarter is the traditional peak sales period, the company has downward adjusted its Q3 target shipments to 1.4 million units. With sales totaling just 3.1 million units in the first half of 2010, the company seems unable to meet its 2010 shipment target of 7 to 8 million units.

Asustek Computer saw sales of its netbooks in the second quarter fall short of expectations mainly due to competition from Apple's iPad, and has downward adjusted its target shipments for the third quarter, the traditional peak sales period, to 1.4 million units, according to company president and CEO Jerry Shen at an investors conference on August 13.

Because of decreased shipments of motherboards, notebooks and netbooks, Asustek's financial performance for the second quarter declined on quarter. Asustek will continue to offer Eee PCs and will step into the tablet PC segment with its Eee Note and Eee Pad series, Shen pointed out.

The site also reveals that a 10" Eee PC with Intel's Atom N550 and Windows 7 is expected to be launched in September, this model should cost around $399.