Gross margins are still below expectations, despite everything

Sep 20, 2011 10:06 GMT  ·  By

IT companies are always setting sales goals, and ASUS seems to be exceeding is own, though this hasn't, for a while, actually done much visible good to its finances, all things considered.

Those keeping track of things on the PC market may have learned of the fairly underwhelming results of the past half a year.

Though Lenovo did manage to thrive, to put it lightly, during the second quarter, overall PC sales are still slowing down in growth.

There is also the issue of decreasing prices, as well as global economy fluctuations and the lingering effects of the recession, especially in Europe.

Basically, companies haven't been doing as well as in other years, and even those who do expect decent results won't see hiking finances.

The one company that reports are now looking at is ASUS, whose third quarter shipments volume may just surpass previous estimates.

Unfortunately, exchange rate fluctuations have hit the PC segment rather hard, especially in Europe, where price competitions abound.

As such, gross margins aren't going to be anything to brag about for a while, despite larger shipment levels.

Nonetheless, the fact that its previous forecast of 3.6 million units will be exceeded is still a plus, even if by how much is unclear.

As for the upcoming fourth quarter, ASUS has again set a 3.6 million estimate, though nothing is certain.

All this information is attributed, by Digitimes, to company CFO (chief financial officer) David Chang.

Moving forward, it is obvious that much hope is being placed into the new mobile personal computer type, known as Ultrabook, though these units, too, have their own problem, namely a price point that isn't precisely the most flattering trait.

What remains is to see if things ever get good enough for ASUS to try and push upward in the top worldwide suppliers of PC ranking list.