Seeing difficulties achieving further growth in the notebook business, Inventec is planning to switch its focus to the cloud computing and solar industries for 2014-2016, according to company chairman Richard Lee.
As most ODMs are gradually losing their notebook orders to the top-two makers, Inventec has decided to focus on non-notebook businesses for revenue growths.
Lee pointed out that Inventec's solar business will contribute about NT$10 billion (US$337 million) in revenues in 2013 and the amount is expected to double in 2014. The growth will come from mainly solar module sales, Lee noted.
Currently, Inventec's annual solar module capacity is about 100MW and the company is set to raise the volume to 250MW in the first quarter of 2014, and to 400MW by the end of 2014, noted Lee. Once the capacity reaches 400MW, the company will become more competitive against its Taiwan-based competitors, Lee added.
In the next three years, the solar industry is expected to see increasing sales with the US, Japan and China together accounting for 60% of global sales, Lee noted citing figures from research firms. In the future, Inventec will expand its solar business investments in the US and Japan.
As for cloud computing, the company's server business will contribute about 25% of total revenues in 2013 and will achieve over 10% on-year growth in 2014. Handheld devices such as smartphones currently contribute about 10% in revenues and the business is expected to achieve 30% on-year growth in 2014.
In 2014, Inventec will push its notebook, all-in-one PC and workstation shipments to achieve 10% on-year growth.
