Asustek Computer shipped about one million ZenFone smartphones in the second quarter, but to achieve its shipment goal of eight million units for 2014, the company will need to ship seven million units in the second half, posing a rather difficult challenge for the Taiwan-based vendor, according to market watchers.

Asustek's weaknesses in securing sufficient component supply significantly impacted its smartphone shipments in the second quarter. Lacking economies of scale, Asustek has no advantages bargaining for price or volume when purchasing components. Currently, Asustek's orders are even weaker than those of HTC and China's second- or third-tier smartphone vendors, the market watchers said.

Although Asustek has resumed its supply and will push aggressively into emerging markets such as China, India and Russia, the company will still need to face the strong competition from new smartphones from players such as Xiaomi in the third quarter, the watchers noted.

The company is also facing issues with its tablet business. Asustek shipped 12 million tablets in 2013, but earned very limited profits from the product line. Asustek is aiming to maintain its tablet shipments at 12 million units for 2014, but is unlikely to do so because tablet ASPs have been dropping rapidly.