Taiwan-based notebook ODM Compal Electronics aims to increase the proportion of consolidated revenues for non-notebook products from 20% in 2012 to 26% in 2013 and over 30% in 2014, according to company president Ray Chen.

Compal is recruiting a R&D team specifically for servers, with about 30 members initially and small-volume production to begin in February, Chen said. Compal expects to obtain server OEM orders from two US-based clients, Chen noted.

According to industry sources in Taiwan, the two clients are Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Dell, both of which will shift orders from their original Taiwan-based OEMs Quanta Computer and Wistron because the manufacturing partners have become competitors for orders for servers used in data centers.

The proportion of touch-enabled Windows 8 notebooks is expected to rise from 5% in 2012 to up to 10% in first-quarter of 2013 and may rise to 30% in third-quarter 2013, Chen indicated. Because touch panel yield rates are only 60-70% and demand from the tablet and smartphone segments has been strong, there will be touch panel shortages globally in 2013, Chen said. Henghao Technology, Compal's subsidiary of glass-based projected capacitive touch panels, will expand production capacity beginning second-quarter 2013 and is expected to reach profitable operation in the following quarter.

Compal has attained an average yield rate of 99.3% for tablet production and will reach 99.5% soon, Chen said.