Taipei, Oct.9, 2008 (CENS)--With its newly launched S101 series budget-price laptops gaining popularity globally, Asustek Computer Inc., a world-caliber vendor of notebook PCs, is optimistic to take the fourth spot as a global brand of this kind this year, only trailing HP, Dell and Acer, according to Jerry Shen, CEO of the firm.

Despite the recent global financial crisis, Asustek still foresees its single-month sale of the hot-selling S101 series laptops to hit 50,000 units in October, probably embracing rosy performance in the fourth quarter of this year, Shen indicated. The S101 is the newest model of Eee PC family, featuring premium, metallic exterior design for the segment for high-end budget-price laptops.

After adding the S101 in its portfolio, Asustek is expected to see its overall shipment of notebook PCs to top the historical high in October and to unseat Toshiba to take the No. 4 brand globally by sales volume by the fourth quarter.

According to statistics compiled by IDC (International Data Corp.), HP shipped 6.68 million notebook PCs in the second quarter of this year as the leading brand in the world, trailed by Dell with 4.9 million units and Acer with 4.8 million units. In the meantime, Asustek ranked No. 6 with 2.06 million units, not including sales of Eee PC.

Shen added that since debuting its Eee PC last October, his company has shipped 4 million units of the products within only one year, and is very likely to further push up the figure to 5.5 million units at the end of this year. With consumer demand for Eee PC staying strong in Europe and China, the brand projects its annual shipment of notebook PCs, including Eee PC, to surge to 11 million units this year from 4.6 million units posted last year.

Noteworthy was that in September Asustek shipped 600,000 notebook PCs worldwide and even shipped as many as HP in China. Shen said his brand will probably advance to the third place by market shares in China.

However, Shen confessed that affected by fierce underselling globally, Asustek has seen the ASP (average selling price) of own-branded notebook PCs drop 10% this year.
(by Steve Chuang)