Monica Chen, Taipei; Joseph Tsai

 

Asustek Computer is expected to see on-quarter revenues drop of 20% in the first quarter of 2012 with the amount drop to only NT$80 billion (US$2.67 billion) from about NT$100 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011 mainly due to drop in notebook performance, according to market watchers.

Affected by the Lunar New Year holidays, which reduces the overall working days in January, and the Europe market, the largest market base of Asustek, still remains in economy turmoil, Asustek is expected to see 10% sequential decline in notebook shipments in the first quarter with its tablet PCs and Eee PCs also unlikely to enjoy growth.

Compared to the overall notebook market's performance, market watchers expect the industry to suffer an average of 10%-15% shipment decline on quarter.

As for the motherboard business, Asustek is still expected to achieve a better shipment result in the first quarter than the fourth quarter of 2011.

However, benefiting by Intel's launch of the Ivy Bridge platform, demand for notebook is expected to rise in the second quarter and with assistance from Windows 8 in the third quarter, a new wave of replacement trends are expected to start appearing in the quarter, helping notebook shipment to grow.