Acer Inc (宏碁) expects its notebook computer shipments and market share at home to grow this quarter annually and quarterly, driven by the launch of the firm’s thinnest notebook series, a company executive said yesterday.
“We are optimistic that the launch of the Swift series will help Acer’s notebook sales this quarter,” Acer Taiwan operations president Dave Lin (林佳璋) told reporters on the sidelines of the product launch.
The Swift 7 measures 0.998cm in height and weighs 1.1kg, providing portability with up to nine hours of battery life, Lin said.
Acer’s Taiwan branch is shifting its sales and marketing focus to notebooks that are thin and light in line with the market trend and consumer demand, Lin said.
MARKET SHARE
Acer’s market share in Taiwan is expected to grow to 25 percent this quarter, after expanding by 1 percentage point to 24 percent last quarter from a quarter earlier, Lin said.
Notebook shipments are to climb this quarter from a quarter earlier, Lin said, but he did not provide a forecast range.
Despite increasing component costs due to stronger-than-expected demand, Lin said Acer does not plan to raise retail prices in Taiwan this year.
Lin said the company is communicating with upstream and downstream component suppliers on a daily basis to ensure smooth supply.
Acer is stepping up efforts to optimize its resources to manage costs, he said.
For the whole year, Lin said its notebook shipments in Taiwan could grow as much as 5 to 10 percent on steadily improving demand for commercial and consumer notebooks.
Acer’s combined revenue dropped 12.49 percent to NT$171.07 billion (US$5.42 billion) in the first nine months of this year.
REVENUE REPORT
The firm is to release its revenue for last month on Thursday next week and report its earnings results from last quarter before Nov. 15.
Acer shares dropped 0.34 percent to NT$14.45 in Taipei trading yesterday, underperforming the TAIEX, which fell 0.19 percent.
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