Wistron chairman Simon Lin, at the company's investors meeting on April 27, pointed out that the company's revenue performance in the first quarter of 2011 was lower than expected due to multiple factors, but the company will start catching up with its goal in the second quarter and is aiming to achieve shipment growth of 10-15% sequentially for notebooks and 20-30% for LCD TVs.

Wistron expects its notebook shipments in the first half of 2011 will reach 13-14 million units and is aiming to ship a total of 30 million units in 2011 with LCD TV shipments for 2011 to break 10 million units.

Wistron originally estimated it will ship 35-37 million notebooks in 2011, but recently reduced the amount to only 30 million units due to tablet PCs impacting the traditional notebook market. Lin even believes that global notebook shipments may only achieve a single-digit percentage growth in 2011. Since Wistron does not have a large amount of netbook orders, the company only saw limited impact from tablet PCs; however, Lin expects tablet PC's impact on traditional notebooks will continue throughout both the second and third quarters.

As for component shortages caused by Japan's earthquake, Lin believes component shortages in the second quarter are not serious and will only affect 2-3% of the company's shipments. As for rising component costs, Wistron will continue to negotiate with its clients about raising manufacturing quotes or changing its purchasing model; however, the company believes its profitability after the second quarter will gradually improve.

As for the tablet PC market, Lin thinks that vendors will only be trying out their products in 2011, therefore Wistron will not push tablet PC shipment volumes in 2011, but instead will search for a correct business model such as pairing with cloud computing and providing its clients a full solution. Wistron expects its tablet PC shipments will reach one million units in 2011.

In addition to its existing clients, Wistron will have two new clients for its LCD TV business in the second half of 2011, helping the company to ship over 10 million LCD TVs for the year, with volumes in 2012 to be even higher.

As for the waste recycling business, Lin pointed out that the company's first factory will start operating in the fourth quarter of 2011 with the recycled components to supply 20-25% of Wistron's demand. The company will establish a new plant in North America in 2012 and the business is estimated to have more clear results in 2013.