Asus: PC market still burning, but folks are guzzling our tablets

Remember double-digit profit rises, HP, Dell... Acer?

Asustek Computer Inc is surfing the slabbie sales swell better than most of its peers, if calendar Q1 financials are a decent metric.

The Taiwanese producer of own-branded tabs - it also makes Google's Nexus 7 - pushed up turnover 16 per cent to NT$105,157bn (£2.29bn) in the first three months of 2013.

The bottom line also headed north with net profits bouncing 21 per cent to NT$6.05bn (£130m) - representing a double-digit leap and the stuff of dreams for US PC rivals and Acer.

Asustek shipped 4.7 million notebook/hybrids compared to 4.1 million notebooks a year ago; three million ePad slablets compared to 600,000 at the same time last year; and five million motherboards compared to 5.5 million a year ago.

According to IDC's PC tracker prelims, Asus shipped 4.3 million units in the first quarter compared to 5.4 million a year earlier. This represented a drop of 19.2 per cent.

The ONLY major PC vendor which did not experience a decline in Q1 was Lenovo, which has grown fat by having a dominant market share position in China, the world's largest consumer of PCs.

Asus reckons sales in the Americas climbed to 23 per cent of worldwide revenues, Asia accounted for 47 per cent but Europe dropped four base points to 32 per cent.

Inventory fell seven per cent in the quarter as Asus kept an eye on stock management. In fact it warned sales of tablets would dip sequentially to 2.8 million in Q2 due to a product transition.

Shipments are projected to remain flat for motherboards and edge up ever so slightly on notebooks. ®