Asustek Computer will start marketing its next generation ZenFone-series smartphones in Taiwan from March 9, according to the company.

The new ZenFone 2 smartphones will be also available in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and France in March and in India, Italy and other Southeast Asia markets in April and in Brazil in June.

Asustek's smartphone shipments hit a record high of 8.5 million units in 2014, higher than the company's target of eight million units. However, due to a lack of production scale, the company's handset business unit still posted a loss of around NT$3 billion (US$94.92 million) in 2014, according to an industry estimate.

However, company CEO Jerry Shen stated that the losses of its handset business unit have been declining since September 2014 and actually reach breakeven in the fourth quarter of 2014, adding that the handset business will definitely make a turnaround in 2015.

Asustek's total smartphone shipments are expected to top 17 million units in 2015, Shen estimated, adding that the handset business unit will reach breakeven if its smartphone shipments top three million units a quarter or 12 million units for all of the year.

Shipments of the ZenFone 2 smartphones will total 500,000 units in March and reach one million units starting April. The production can be ramped up to as high as 2-3 million units a month depending on orders, according to an internal estimate.

Asustek is outsourcing the production of its ZenFone smartphones to Pegatron Technology.