MURMER GADGET

Taiwans Asustek plans to boost its smartphone manufacturing capacity next month to satisfy solid demand for its low-cost ZenFone range, company CEO Jerry Shen said Thursday. The monthly worldwide shipments of Asusteks smartphones are expected to increase from 200,000-300,000 units in April to 400,000-500,000 units in May, Shen told a press briefing to address a recent ZenFone pricing controversy that saw the phones priced lower in China than in Taiwan. The manufacturing capacity is estimated to hit a maximum of over 500,000 units in June, with distributors and retailers having already placed huge amounts of orders for the popular ZenFone models, he said. That means the monthly production scale for May and June will be comparable with the full-year shipments of 400,000 to 500,000 units of Asusteks 2013 flagship PadFone models, Shen said. The company forecast April 8 that it would sell 5 million smartphones this year to give its revenue a year-on-year boost. The company sold 1.5 million ...

TAIPEI -- Taiwans Asustek (華碩) Computer Inc. apologized yesterday for pricing its low-cost ZenFone smartphone models higher in Taiwan than in China, which has created negative controversy for the PC vendor over the past week. “We are truly sorry for the inconvenience we have brought to Taiwanese consumers,” Asustek Chairman Jonney Shih (施崇棠) told a press briefing in Taipei. “We are not doing well in some aspects and we will take the blame with an open mind.” Asustek CEO Jerry Shen (沈振來) admitted that the firms decision to upgrade ZenFone models for the China market to better hardware specifications was to take into account the stiff competition from Chinese handset maker Xiaomi Corp.s new Hongmi Note, a 5.5-inch octa-core smartphone that starts from only 799 Chinese yuan (US$128). The apology came a week after Asustek announced its ZenFone line in Taiwan on April 8 with a price tag of NT$4,990 (US$166) for a 5-inch model and NT$6,990 for a 6-inch model. When the ZenF...

Taipei, June 29 (CNA) Taiwans Asustek Computer Inc. is scheduled to open its official online store in Singapore on July 7 as the companys first step in expanding its online sales network of the low-cost ZenFone smartphone into Southeast Asian markets. Further, the PC vendor will open its e-commerce website in Hong Kong in late August or early September, said Michael Huang, general manager of the Taiwan branch of Singapore-based e-commerce group Uitox Corp., which teamed up with Asustek in April this year to sell ZenFone models online in Taiwan. By the end of this year, Asustek plans to launch its official online smartphone sales service with Uitox in more Southeast Asian markets, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam, Huang told reporters last week when he attended an e-commerce forum in Taipei organized by Facebook Inc. Asustek officials admit to being surprised by the better-than-expected results of its online smartphone sales, which accounted for more ...