Asus sees 43 percent profit jump on strong hardware sales
updated 03:08 pm EDT, Tue October 30, 2012
Nexus 7, convertible sales strong
Asus released its earnings figures for the third quarter today, surprising investors by posting its largest quarterly profit in more than four years. Buoyed in part by solid sales of the Nexus 7 tablet it built with Google and continuing growth in its PC and convertible tablet sales, Asus saw its profits rise 43 percent year-over-year to $229.1 million. The Taiwanese electronics manufacturer forecast continuing growth for the next quarter, raising its estimates of shipments for both tablets and PCs.
Asus' gains are especially surprising, given the grim outlook for much of the rest of the PC industry.
Despite the difficult global economic environment, Asus moved 2.35 million tablets in the last quarter, up from 920,000 in the previous quarter. Much of that total, no doubt, stems from sales of the Nexus 7 produced in partnership with Google, though Asus has not provided specific breakdowns of tablet sales. The company expects tablet shipments to grow 13 percent next quarter to 2.6 million units.
Shipments of Asus' notebook PCs were up 14 percent from the second quarter to five million units, growing its share of the worldwide market to 11.7 percent. For the next quarter, Asus expects to ship 5.5 million units, an increase of 10 percent.
A presentation on the company's most recent financials states that its goals for the coming year are to achieve the number one position in touch notebooks, the number two position in tablets, and to continue growing its comparatively small smartphone segment. The coming quarter will see Asus taking its first real steps into the US telecom market, as AT&T will be selling Asus' new Windows 8 Vivo Tab RT tablet PC in the coming weeks.
