With the early second quarter numbers just in from Asus, it looks like the technology giant has managed to battle its way to increased sales in a tough market. KitGuru sits back to analyse the numbers and ponder what they mean.
Small companies always look good.
Anything they do – any sales they make or products they sell – automatically look like a ‘win'.
While there is no doubting that being a top component manufacturer and fifth biggest PC manufacturer overall has its benefits, one thing is for certain: You are there to be shot at – and everyone else wants a piece of what you have.
While profits at Asus HQ might have tumbled by more than 6%, it has still managed to deliver close to £130 million in the second quarter of 2013.
Also, it seems that while the overall market for PCs dropped by almost 11%, Asus managed to increase sales by close to 6% overall.
That's remarkable by any standard and means that someone else out there must have been losing that market share to Asus.
When companies like Gartner and IDC discuss/present numbers, then the sheer size of the actual shipments can get a little lost – in terms of ‘perspective'.
Example?
Well, for Q2 it appears that Asus shipped around 6 million PCs (the definition of what constitutes a PC changes over the years, but lets say that we're talking about ‘desktops and laptops that run Windows – with no tablets allowed'.
A very big local system builder might shift something like 2,000 units a month – which is 6,000 a quarter – which is 1,000th of what Asus designs, builds, ships and supports. Now THAT is some serious scale.
To sell what Asus sells globally in 2013, a local system builder would have had started selling BEFORE the Normans invaded Britain – and kept up a constant 24,000 units a year ever since.
.
KitGuru says: The market is as flat and competitive as anyone can remember. Any increase in that environment means competitive growth – taking part of someone else's pie. Not easy and likely to generate a counter attack in Q3. Watch this space!
Comment below, in the KitGuru forums or join over 105,000 other KitGuru fans over on Facebook.