Acer Inc (宏碁), the world’s fourth-largest PC maker, yesterday said it would maintain its target of shipping 5 million smartphones this year.
That would be a fivefold increase from 1 million units shipped last year.
“We hope we can reach our goal or even exceed it,” Acer corporate president and chief executive Jason Chen (陳俊聖) told reporters on the sidelines of the Acer Global Partner Conference.
The conference was attended by senior executives from Acer’s suppliers, including Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶), the world’s top two contract laptop makers, as well as US search engine company Google Inc and chipmaker Nvidia Corp.
However, Taipei-based Fubon Securities Co (富邦證券) analyst Arthur Liao (廖顯毅) said he held a more conservative view on the outlook for Acer’s mobile device business.
“We remain concerned as to whether Jason can lead Acer into the world of mobile devices as he is unfamiliar with the mobile device industry,” Liao said by telephone yesterday.
“It will be difficult for Acer to join the mobile device camp, as it is a competitive market,” he added.
Liao forecast that Acer would ship 2 million to 3 million smartphones this year, surpassing his estimate of 1.5 million units for Acer’s smartphone segment last year.
On Dec. 2 last year, Acer said in an e-mailed statement that it had sold more than 1 million smartphones worldwide, including 300,000 Acer Liquid Z3 smartphones bought by Thailand’s largest mobile operator, Advanced Info Service.
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