14 DAY TRIAL // ASUS' Eee PC netbooks are undoubtedly among the company's most successful products, but even so, the Taiwanese manufacturer has seen its notebooks shipments fail to rise to the expectations in the first half of 2008. As a result, the company's CEO announced yesterday, during an investors press conference, that ASUS would have a though time reaching its already set annual shipments target.
The company also went public with its determination of taking considerable measures in order to reach the aforementioned target. Among them is that of bringing forward a plan of outsourcing for notebooks, including for the successful Eee PC lineup, in the fourth quarter of 2008. Jerry Shen, the company's CEO, also added that a total of 30% of ASUS' notebooks and Eee PCs would be produced by subcontractors in the second quarter of 2009. Unfortunately, Shen declined to name specific OEM partners. He added that his company would partner with ODMs / OEMs in the initial stages, but that partnerships with EMS players were also possible.
Shen also took the time to explain the reasons for the low demand in notebooks, which prevented ASUSTek from meeting its shipments target for the first half of 2008. According to him, the earthquake and weak stock market in China led to a lower consumption in the second quarter. This was also the case in Europe, where demand was low because of the ongoing weak economy.
As the CEO further explained, the demand for notebooks in China and Europe resumed in July and August, with monthly shipments to each region posting sequential growth from July. Even more, he added, this trend is expected maintain a progressive ascension in the future.
In related news, ASUSTek has recently launched Eee Storage, a 20GB Internet hard drive service, and Eee Download, to provide Eee PC users with additional features. The launch of the service was made public by the company's CEO, as a means to strengthen demand for Eee PCs.
Currently, Eee Download hosts around 3,000 free software and game titles available (at this time) for every Chinese Eee PC user. ASUS plans to expand the service into an online store that will allow users to download music and various other content.
Eee Storage features a drag and drop interface that enables users to easily transfer files between the Eee PC and the web storage location.