Taiwan-based notebook makers Quanta Computer, Compal Electronics, Wistron and Pegatron Technology have announced their revenues for December 2010 with Quanta and Wistron both seeing on-month growth in notebook shipments thanks to Hewlett-Packard (HP), Apple and Lenovo's early preparation for holidays, meanwhile Compal and Pegatron both saw drops because Acer was conservative about placing orders, according to sources from notebook industry.
Quanta announced consolidated revenues of NT$96.1 billion (US$3.28 billion) for December, down 4.2% on month, but up 5.3% on year; meanwhile the company shipped five million notebooks, up from 4.9 million units in November. The growth in the company's December revenues was mainly benefited by its clients started preparing notebooks for the Lunar New Year holidays in China as the retail channel only had a flat sales performance.
As for 2011, the company may experience a double-digit drop in the first quarter revenues due to the strong performance in the fourth quarter 2010, but the company is optimistic toward the demand from the upcoming holidays in China.
Compal reported consolidated revenues of NT$60.54 billion for December 2010, down 13.7% on month and 15% on year, with shipments in the month reached 3.5 million units, down from 3.8 million units in November.
Compal believes its falling performance in November is due to its clients being slower in digesting their inventory, while they are also conservative about placing orders. However, the company expects result in January 2011 will rise 5-10% on month and its enterprise notebook clients will have strong orders in the first quarter, helping it to maintain its sales growth in the future.
Wistron had NT$54.16 billion for December 2010 consolidated revenues, up 1.7% on month, but a drop 2.5% on year, with notebook shipments in the month reached 2.6 million units, up from 2.4 million units in November.
In the same month, Wistron also shipped 600,000 handheld devices, 150,000 servers, 350,000 LCD TVs, 800,000 desktops and 700,000 LCD monitors. Among the products lines, only handheld device and LCD TV saw on-month shipment drop in December, all other lines had seen flat performance.
Pegatron, affected by Asustek Computer shifting more orders to Quanta and Compal, shipped less than one million notebooks in December, generating consolidated revenues of NT$31.2 billion, down 13.4% on month and 26.9% on year.
Meanwhile, Inventec saw its quarterly notebook shipments in 2010 average 4-4.1 million units with enterprise notebook orders being the major contributor. For the first quarter of 2011, the company will suffer a slight shipment drop sequentially because of fewer working days in February; however, the company's server business will see significant growth in 2011.