During the last quarter, ASUS has seen market share evaporate with sales falling 27%. The company also reported a 94% fall in profits to $13.7M.
At the recent CES Show in Las Vegas, ASUS CEO Jonney Shih admitted that the company was struggling to deliver a new generation of touch screen Netbook's due to the "complexity of Apple patents" for touch screen notebooks.
During a demonstration at CES of their new Eee Netbook range, featuring Windows 7 touch screen technology, the company twice failed to get their new Netbook to work with the screen freezing as executives tried to demonstrate new models.
IDC last week said worldwide Netbook shipments went up sevenfold to roughly 4.5 million during the first quarter of 2009 compared to the same quarter last year. Netbook's comprised approximately 8 percent of all PC shipments during the first quarter.
Despite an early backlash due to uncertainty surrounding the device, netbooks have been grabbing more attention since early 2008, said Jay Chou, research analyst at IDC. Netbooks are attractive as secondary devices because of their low prices and small sizes, he said. Low prices helped fuel netbook sales, although people, in general, have reduced spending during the recession. Asustek is also facing a problem familiar to many small companies that hit it big: how to sustain the success over the long haul.
