Quanta, Compal to See NB PC Shipments Rebound in March

Taipei, March 4, 2011 (CENS)--With market demand for notebook PCs starting to rise in March, the Taiwan-based Quanta Computer Inc. and Compal Electronics Inc., now the world's top two notebook PC manufacturers, are expected to see their shipments rebound in the month, according to institutional investors.

Industry insiders pointed out that one reason behind the bright market prospect is that Intel's Sandy Bridge design flaw, which impacted the industry earlier, has been fixed later, hence driving vendors to increase contract orders with Quanta and Compal recently.

As its major clients, HP and Apple Inc., have raised sales projections for March, Quanta, which suffered a deeper drop in notebook PC shipment in February due to seasonal factors, is expected to ship 4.4-4.5 million units this month, representing an 18-21% increase from February.

Compal has also projected its notebook PC shipment at 4-4.5 million units for March, up 30-50% from February a month earlier. The firm's client Acer Inc. has released several new notebook PCs featuring fixed Sandy Bridge chipsets and therefore stepped up placement of contract orders with it recently.

Worth mentioning is that Quanta, which has actively ventured into the segment for cloud computing technology-based servers and devices, has just garnered an order from Korea's leading telecom service provider, KT, for such products, successfully securing another growth drive for its cloud computing business this year. Presently, the firm's client list includes global Internet giants, like Amazon, FaceBook and Google, as well as large-sized telecom companies such as Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom and Korea's KT.

NB PC Shipment Projections for March 2011
Company	Shipment Volume	Month-on-month Growth Rate	Major Client
Compal Electronics Inc.	4-4.5 million units	30-50%	Acer, Lenovo
Quanta Computer Inc.	4.4-4.5 million units	18-21%	HP, Apple

Source: institutional investors