Acer Inc (宏碁), the world’s No. 2 personal computer maker, expects shipments of portable PCs — which include notebooks and netbooks — to reach 40 million units next year, which would make it the world’s biggest portable PC maker, Acer chairman Wang Jeng-tang (王振堂) said yesterday.
According to Acer chief executive officer Gianfranco Lanci, the company will ship more than 30 million portable PCs this year.
Wang also said that the company’s revenue would grow 15 percent next year, with PC shipments rising by between 13 percent and 15 percent next year.
Following an Acer report of record numbers for consolidated revenue and net operating profit in the third quarter of this year, Wang said he expected the company’s shipments to grow another 10 percent in the fourth quarter.
Consolidated revenue should reach NT$167 billion (US$5.19 billion) in the third quarter, up 40 percent from the second quarter and up 5 percent from the same time last year, with a net operating profit of NT$4.7 billion, he said.
The company, which is due to hold its quarterly investors conference tomorrow, overtook Dell as the world’s No. 2 PC maker by shipment and is behind only Hewlett-Packard Co (HP) as of the third quarter, according to analysts.
Wang told reporters he expected the global portable PC market to grow by 50 percent next year, with Acer’s shipments set to outperform the overall market.
Although Acer was unlikely to beat HP’s shipments of large notebooks, Wang said Acer could surpass HP on shipments of netbooks and medium-size, ultra-low voltage notebooks.
He added that emerging markets would be the company’s major growth force next year. Acer has performed well in India and Brazil and has kept ahead in Russia, but still has much room for development in China, he said.
Lanci added that the company aims to be the No. 3 PC brand in China next year, with a 10 percent market share, up from 6 percent to 7 percent at present.
Lanci also said that cellphones would be the focus of development in the China market over the next three years.
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