Asustek targets 77 percent laptop jump in 2009: report

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan's Asustek Computer aims to increase its notebook output by 77 percent in 2009 as it rides growing demand for its low-cost laptops, local media reported on Tuesday.

Asustek Chairman Jonney Shih said he hoped his company would ship up to 20 million laptops next year, propelling Asustek to become one of the world's top four laptop makers, the Chinese-language Economic Daily reported.

Shih, whose company is a pioneer in the increasingly popular class of low-cost notebooks known as netbooks, made his remarks during the launch of a new series of its Eee PC netbook line.

Based on previous forecasts, the company is on track to ship 11.3 million notebooks this year, including netbooks, the newspaper said.

Shares in Asustek were up nearly 3 percent on Tuesday, outpacing a 0.3 percent drop in the benchmark index.

Many of the world's top PC makers, including Dell, Acer and NEC, have entered the netbook market and will either launch or have launched their own line of low-cost notebooks.

iSuppli expects the global notebook PC market to grow 20 percent next year to 155 million units, but it expects the netbook segment to grow more than twice as quickly, by 55 percent, to 13.2 million units.

(Reporting by Kelvin Soh, Editing by Anne Marie Roantree)