Taiwan's top-five electronics manufacturers are Hon Hai, Compal, Asustek Computer Inc., Quanta Computer Inc. and Acer Inc. Of them, only Acer hasn't yet released March sale results.

With the launch of Apple Computer's iPad tablet computers, Hon Hai registered robust 52.28% annual growth March sales, hitting the highest monthly growth since the beginning of this year. Hon Hai is Apple's major contract manufacturer.

Hon Hai spokesman C.A. Ting attributed the substantial sales growth to the increased shipments in 3C (computers, communications and consumer electronics) products.

Compal, Taiwan's largest contract manufacturer of notebook computers, registered US$2.46 billion in March sales, up 75% year-on-year. The company shipped 4.25 million units of NBs in March, outnumbered Quanta's 4.1 million. The company shipped cumulative 12.5 million units of NBs in the first quarter of this year, also outstripped Quanta's 11 million units.

Thanks to NB shipments hitting historic-highs, Asustek saw March sales reach US$1 billion in March, up 56% from preceding month. The firm has set a goal to ship 20 million NBs this year.

Asustek said it shipped 1.6 million units of NBs plus "Eee" PCs in March, outpaced the 1.5 million units recorded in October last year. The company shipped four million NBs and "Eee" PCs in the first quarter of this year.

An institutional investor predicted Asustek will challenge shipments of between 8.3 million and 8.5 million units of NBs in the first half of this year.

With monthly shipments hitting an all-time high of 4.1 million NBs in March, Quanta is expected to see shipments grow throughout May, posting 5% to 10% annual growths in second-quarter shipments.