Asus CEO Jerry Shen has said that the company’s Q1’16 revenues are expected to drop 16% QoQ, although they should be flat YoY. Operating margins will remain steady at around 4.5%.
Challenges are expected to remain in the PC and smartphone markets in the near future. Asus has been pushing its shipments to stay ahead of the industry average. Shen said that 4.8 million notebook shipments are expected in Q1 (down from 5.4 million in Q4’15, but ahead of the -10% industry average).
Throughout the year, Asus is aiming to ship between 22 million and 24 million PCs, of which notebooks will represent about 20 million units. High-end gaming products and detachables are expected to grow the most: 50% – 100% YoY. Business notebooks and Chromebooks will be a new focus.
Sources say that Asus will launch its Zenfone 3 series at Computex in June. The company had apparently planned to reveal a hybrid PC, similar to the Microsoft Surface, in March, but has delayed the launch until the end of June.
Analyst Comment
As we reported from ISE, Asus is joining Acer, BenQ and others in trying to develop more of a B2B profile by introducing digital signage displays. (BR)
