AST Research Inc chief financial officer Bruce Edwards says that the Irvine personal computer manufacturer expects to be in full volume production of most of its new products by the close of its second fiscal quarter which ends in December: Edwards told the Alex Brown technology conference that AST has been gradually ramping up production of its new personal computers, laptops and servers, but that the company has had production transition problems – it announced September 1 that it expected to report a net loss in its first fiscal quarter ended October 2 due to product development delays, component constraints and delivery problems; We have corrected some of the issues, Edwards said, adding that AST currently is shipping volume quantities of high-end notebooks and high-end desktop computers; AST is meeting the IBM Corp blitz by increasing its advertising spending about 50% over last year, in an attempt to win a bigger share of the fast-growing home market.
