Microsoft upbeat on 2008 sales to Taiwan PC makers

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"We are seeing double digit growth in sales, above 10 percent," Davis Tsai, president of Microsoft Taiwan, said at a media event.

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp <MSFT.O> expects its sales to Taiwan's contract manufacturers of PCs, including Quanta <2382.TW> and Asustek <2357.TW>, to rise more than 10 percent in 2008, the head of its Taiwan unit said on Thursday.

"We are seeing double digit growth in sales, above 10 percent," Davis Tsai, president of Microsoft Taiwan, said at a media event.

Quanta and cross-town rival Compal Electronics <2324.TW>, make around 60 percent of the world's laptop PCs and supply major PC vendors such as Hewlett-Packard <HPQ.N>, Dell <DELL.O> and Lenovo <0992.HK>.

Tsai added that some Taiwan clients, such as Gigabyte <2376.TW>, have started to see a drop in exports to the United States amid worries of a slowing U.S. economy, but sales to countries such as China, Africa and Eastern Europe remained robust.

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(US$1=T$31.52)

(Reporting by Sheena Lee; Editing by Edmund Klamann)