Acer aims to overtake HP in notebook sales
Acer recently outpaced Dell as the second largest PC seller in the world. Is No. 1 Hewlett-Packard next on the list?
Acer Chairman J.T. Wang reportedly intends to ship 40 million notebooks in 2010, a number that could help the Taiwanese company challenge and even overtake current champ Hewlett-Packard for the top spot in portable PC sales.
To achieve this goal, Acer is looking to kick up revenue by more than 70 percent over the next three years, said Wang in an interview with Reuters.
Much of that revenue growth is likely to come from an anticipated 50 percent gain in sales for low-cost Netbook PCs. As the economy improves, Wang expects to sell an ever greater number of low-priced, portable PCs, a segment that has been very kind to the company.
As chairman since 2008, Wang has led Acer as its sales and market share have shot up over the past year. And with revenue expected to hit $18 billion this year, he's already targeting the next milestone.
"The idea is to reach $30 billion as soon as possible," Wang told Reuters. "When we look at the overall market, if the PC market starts to grow from next year and handhelds have the potential to become a $200 billion market, $30 billion is a humble target."
On Friday, the company saw third-quarter sales hit $167.6 billion Taiwanese dollars ($5.2 billion), a new high and up 5.3 percent from last year's third quarter. Earnings jumped 14 percent to $3.47 billion Taiwanese dollars ($107.8 million). Had it not been for a shortage of certain components, Acer said it would have done even better.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect sales to rise to $573 billion Taiwanese dollars ($18 billion) for the entire year, and $821 billion Taiwanese dollars ($25 billion) in 2012.
Acer has hit the portable PC market with a fury, releasing a string of small, light, low-cost products. Its latest upcoming entry is the Aspire 1820PT, a 11.6-inch notebook with a swivel screen that transforms it into a tablet computer.
Unlike most small Netbooks that size, the 1820PT will be powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, rather than the slower Atom chip. Wang believes that PC users have been turned off by the slowness of many light, ultrathin portables, including those made by Acer.
"We didn't pay enough attention to that," said Wang in a statement after the third quarter earnings were released. "End-users will not compromise on this low speed problem. This time we should be able to do it right."
Also, at less than 1.36 inches thick, the 1820PT will be thinner than most other current swivel-screen notebook/tablets, such as the Fujitsu LifeBook. To be released in time for the holidays, the new notebook will reportedly offer eight hours of battery life and hold as much as 8GB of RAM, says Acer.
But the company is not just relying on the PC market to stimulate growth. At the end of November, Acer will debut its new smartphone, the Acer Liquid A1. Powered by a 768Mhz Snapdragon processor and running the Android operating system, the Liquid will sport a 3.5 inch touch screen, 800 x 480 high-definition resolution, 256MB of memory, and a 5MP autofocus camera. Also part of the mix will be Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and integration with Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks.
Though hands-on details have been sparse, sites such as Gizmodo and Engadget have already said the Snapdragon CPU will likely turn the Liquid A1 into one of the fastest Android phones around.
Acer already pounced on the smartphone market earlier this year with its Tempo line, all running Windows Mobile. But the Liquid will be its first phone to run the Android OS. And although Android phones have been slowly catching on, they naturally face an uphill battle against top players like the Apple iPhone.
The company has also been busy the past several years on a series of strategic acquisitions, eating up Gateway in 2007, Packard Bell in early 2008, and smartphone maker E-Ten a couple of months later.
The purchases of Gateway and Packard Bell have been part of what Acer calls a multibrand strategy, which has aimed to raise the company's brand awareness in countries such as the U.S.
With a global PC market share of 14 percent (second to HP's 20 percent), Acer has become one of the fastest growing PC makers over the past few years, propelling it past Lenovo and then Dell and soon to battle HP for the top spot.
Lance Whitney wears a few different technology hats--journalist, Web developer, and software trainer. He's a contributing editor for Microsoft TechNet Magazine and writes for other computer publications and Web sites. You can follow Lance on Twitter at @lancewhit. Lance is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and he is not an employee of CNET. 
Because they have become slaves to one corporation for their lifeblood, and that corporation dictates terms to them - they simply obey, even when it kills them.
Acer OTOH started selling netbooks with Linux on them, and forced Microsoft to become its slave in very short order.
I am sure that Acer dreams of having the corporate marketshare that HP and Dell have.
...now they do. Ever wonder how that came to pass, especially with an OS version that Microsoft had, until that time, refused to support anymore?
In asia, local brands matter to some extent but generally, cost and quality is what matters.....it not the case where Asians are more loyal and Americans are not....
Love them or hate them, Acer has risen to prominence through acquisitions (originally entered the notebook market by acquiring the TI notebook line in 1996, then eventually Gateway and others)...combined with aggressive marketing. By the way, HP rose to the top the same way. They weren't #1 in notebooks before acquiring Compaq.
Also, Dell has made it very public that their new strategy is to focus on maximizing profits, even if it means sacrificing market share.
I think that HP is now run by a corporate raider rather than a visionary or gifted leader and the affect of that is they are dropping the ball when it comes to quality and service, and the Customers are becoming aware.
As many of the commenters so far have stated there are better and more attractive options.
Acer at the price competitive end, and Apple for truly powerful laptops at the (not so anymore) high end.
That and good pricing is what drives sales, builds loyalty and keeps people coming back time after time,.. Dell, HP and other American companies should take notes.
That and good pricing is what drives sales, builds loyalty and keeps people coming back time after time,.. Dell, HP and other American companies should take notes. My latest Acer purchase, a new desktop, cost 332.00 with shipping, and is the functional equivalent of a similar speced machine from any other company at a price no one else could match when I went shopping.
It's not about nationality, it's about the discipline to build a brand and then feed that brand image. HP and Dell have tried to be all things to all people - and that doesn't work.
Look at Apple. Completely American brand (even more so than Dell since Apple doesn't do all of its support in India), yet growing steadily. They built a marketing strategy and stuck to it - and it's paying off.
There's nothing in the American business ecosystem that prevents that kind of discipline. The problem is the ADHD American CEOs (like Steve Ballmer, for example) don't have the discipline to stick with their game plan.
- by UberDjinn November 4, 2009 6:11 AM PST
- Just to comment on this, Acer might be in the lead in marketing above everyone except HP but the quality raises concern. I actually have an Acer because I heard of their reputation and I like it so far. One problem: most do not know the simple fact that most brand name manufacturers buy thier systems assembled ALREADY by another company. Sad but true: they just slap a label on it and call it theirs. One I heard about is Quanta Computers, a Taiwanese company that supposedly takes up 30% of that market. I am more concerned about how good they are not Acer...
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(17 Comments)(found this out by researching for a while, I almost fell out of my chair. Who knows if it is true or not...people always have it out for someone...oh well...)