Asus has set its sights high, aiming to outship competing companies Toshiba and Lenovo in the notebook segment to become the fifth largest vendor worldwide, according to Shien-yueh Hsu, general manager of Asus' notebook division. The Taiwanese PC maker hopes to ship 20 million laptops in 2010, 12 million of which will be standard notebooks with the remaining eight million being netbooks.
Asus was quick to introduce USB 3.0-equipped laptops, and the company expects those systems to represent about 30% of its total shipments this year. Like others in the business, Asus is currently using NEC's USB 3.0 controller, but it plans to switch to chips provided by its subsidiary ASMedia Technology in May or June.
Naturally, there are naysayers, and some players in the notebook industry believe Asus will have trouble shipping 20 million units. One thing's for sure, the company will have some stiff competition considering Acer's determination to oust HP from the number one position.