July 25, 2000

Taipei - - MITAC, a major Taiwan computer manufacturer, expects it's desktop PC sales will reach the 10 million mark in 2000. The company attributes this optimism to brisk sales in it's worldwide OEM marketes. If the goal will be reached, MITAC would be the world's No. 1 in this category.

In 1999, Acer was the world's No. 1 desktop PC manufacturer. But Acer estimates it's sales will reach only 9.5 million units in 2000, making the company a close second on the world market, as orders from IBM have not increased as expected.

However, Acer forecasts it's PC sales would reach 12 million in 2000, plus a total of three million notebook computers. Quanta Computer Inc. A close runner-up, expects it's sale of notebook PCS will hit three million pieces in 2000.

Meanwhile, the MITAC group has set up a global logistics system ranging from upstream semiconductor products to downstream assembly production lines. The groups production and assembly plants cover Taiwan, the mainland, the U.S., Europe and Japan.

Executives at Mitac said that the world's overall PC market will grow by 18,3% to reach 1,33 billion units in 2000. That would mean that one of every 13 PCs sold on the world market would be from MITAC.