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Acer hopes for NT$30bn annually by 2011

Acer¡¦s Aspire One notebook is pictured last month. The company said the trend toward mobility has allowed Acer¡¦s notebook business to grow steadily. PHOTO: LI YI-JU, TAIPEI TIMES

Acer Inc (§»ùÖ), the world¡¦s third-largest personal computer vendor, said yesterday it hoped to reach US$30 billion in annual revenue to take the No. 1 position in mobile computing by 2011, aided by its multi-brand strategy targeting different regions with different brands.

Mobile refers to Acer¡¦s notebook and netbook ¡X a low-priced, ultra-portable notebook ¡X lines.

The company said the trend toward mobility had allowed its notebook business to grow steadily, with expectations of strong growth for many years to come, Acer president Gianfranco Lanci said during a live Web cast of a global press conference held in Budapest, Hungary.

The annual revenue target can be achieved if the company sees a yearly shipment growth of 30 percent, Lanci said.

Lanci said that netbooks would be the next generation of smart phones. As new technology allows voice on netbooks, they will replaces smart phones, he said.

Moreover, he predicted growth in emerging markets would come primarily from China in 2011, and that notebooks would make up the majority of Acer¡¦s future revenue.

Acer chairman Wang Jeng-tang (¤ý®¶°ó), also present at the press conference, said the company¡¦s third-quarter sales would grow by 25 percent and this year¡¦s revenue would reach US$20 billion, with the delivery of 30 million PCs.

Acer bought Gateway Inc in October to gain a better foothold in the US. Through its purchase of Gateway, the Taiwanese firm also acquired the eMachines brand, which targets the US market, and the Packard Bell name, which Acer hopes will boost its position in the European market.

Lanci said that Gateway and Packard Bell may eventually have their own netbooks.

But John Jacobs, a director of market research at DisplaySearch, questioned the effectiveness of Acer¡¦s acquisition of both Gateway/eMachines and Packard Bell.

In DisplaySearch¡¦s latest quarterly notebook shipments and forecast report released on Wednesday, Jacobs said Acer had not been able to turn around Gateway and Packard Bell¡¦s declining businesses. He said the Taiwanese company¡¦s integration efforts seemed to be falling flat.

Hewlett-Packard Co has been the world¡¦s No. 1 supplier of notebook computers for the last eight quarters, DisplaySearch said in the report. Coming in second and third places were Dell Inc and Acer.

DisplaySearch reported that Acer held 14.4 percent of the North American notebook market in the second quarter of this year, while its notebook market share in emerging markets and East Asia stood at 17.9 percent for the same period.

The Austin, Texas-based research firm also said that the notebook PC market was becoming dominated by consumer rather than corporate sales, which has prompted Dell to increase its efforts in the consumer markets to address the trend.
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