BICTIA at Large

In what will rock the PC industry, analysts are now projecting that low end computer sales will reach 13m units over the next 18 months. That is not insignificant market share. It portends that the ThirdPipe assessment is correct. –

As major PC vendors prepare to launch low-cost PCs in the second quarter, order volumes to Taiwan OEMs in the second half of the year as well as new product directions in 2009 are likely to be affected. The potential volume increase is expected to be around 13 million units in 2008, according to sources at Taiwan OEMs.

Wistron and Quanta Computer are the two OEMs who will benefit most from the rise of low-cost PCs. Acer has already placed additional orders of around one million units with Wistron, while Hewlett-Packard (HP) has placed orders for two million low-cost PC with the company. Quanta will also act as one of Acer’s OEMs for low-cost PCs, noted the sources, adding that vendors may even place more orders in the second quarter.

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