14 DAY TRIAL // Since the end of 2010 is nigh, companies are, naturally, setting sales targets for the next year, and ASUS seems to be quite ambitious, having set solid shipment goals for all of its business branches.
As the year of 2010 draws to a close, ASUS is taking a last look at its performance over the course of the year and setting a new guidance for next year.
As reports have it, ASUS will have shipped less than 25 million motherboards during 2010, meaning it will not reach its target.
Oddly enough, however, stable ASPs (average selling prices) led to a higher gross margin increase.
For 2011, ASUS expects its motherboard sales to improve, from 21.6 million to 22.7 million, while notebooks and Eee PCs will yield shipment growth of their own.
Eee PCs are expected to reach 5.4 million sales by the end of 2010 and to jump to six million next year, while notebooks should grow from 10.9 million to at least 14 million.
Basically, netbook sales are expected to increase by 11% from 2011, but with ASPs set to go through a decline, it is unclear what will happen to revenues exactly, despite the existence of a target figure.
It should also be noted that, while 14 million notebooks is the minimum in ASUS' plans, the real goal is to ship 19 million and become world's third greatest notebook vendor, or so says Digitimes in its report.
One possible factor behind the assumption that ASPs will fall is the rising Taiwan exchange rate, which has been affecting notebook markers more than vendors because it is causing component prices to drop.
Still, ASUS says that gross margin performance should still be stable, meaning that it won't suffer much from the exchange rate, at least not in the short term.
All in all, the outfit hopes to reach consolidated revenues of at least NT$380 billion, which is the equivalent of US$12.75 billion.