Asustek Computer is expected to see its revenues for the first quarter drop 16% from the fourth quarter of 2015, but compared to the same quarter a year ago, the amount should be about the same, while operating margins will maintain at 4.5%, according to market watchers.

Asustek CEO Jerry Shen has said the company will continue to see tough challenges in the PC and smartphone markets in 2016. In addition to lowering risks from exchange rate fluctuations, the company has also been pushing its shipment performance to stay above the industry average.

Asustek's next-generation ZenFone 3-series smartphones will be launched at Computex 2016 in early June, while its robot products will also debut.

Despite fierce competition, Asustek expects its shipments and profitability to still perform better than its competitors. The company is expected to ship 4.8 million notebooks in the first quarter, a drop from the fourth quarter of 2015's 5.4 million units, but flat from the same quarter a year ago, and better than the industry's average of a 10% drop.

Shen noted that Asustek is aiming to ship 22-24 million PCs in 2016 with notebooks accounting for 20 million units, up from 19.3 million in 2015. Among product lines, the company's mainstream VivoBook and Vivo AIO models will see shipments maintain flat on year, while high-end gaming notebooks, ZenBooks and 2-in-1 devices will see 50-100% on-year growths.

Enterprise notebooks, which sold weakly in the past, will become a main focus for 2016, while Chromebook shipments are expected to achieve good results in the second quarter.

Asustek originally planned to unveil a new 2-in-1 device with a design similar to Microsoft's Surface Pro in March, but has recently delayed the launch to the end of June, hoping to further improve its design.

In 2016, high-end ZenBook products and gaming notebooks together are expected to account for 15-20% of Asustek's notebook shipments, while 2-in-1 devices will account for another 10-20%.

Asustek expects its first-quarter smartphone shipments to reach around four million units, down from 6.5 million units in the fourth quarter of 2015, but up from three million units in the first quarter of 2015.

Asustek has also cooperated with virtual reality (VR) device player Oculus to release ROG-series desktops supporting the VR device and these desktops will be available in the US, Netherlands and Taiwan initially. Asustek will announce related pricing for Taiwan at the end of February.

In addition to PCs, Asustek is also planning to combine its smartphones with outside VR/AR devices, and is still evaluating plans to develop in-house VR devices.