Acer Inc (宏碁) expects its smartphone sales in Taiwan to double next year, after growing an estimated more than 60 percent this year, a company executive said yesterday.
“The company is aiming for the No. 5 spot in Taiwan’s smartphone market by the end of next year,” Acer Taiwan Regional Operation president Towny Huang (黃鐘鋒) told reporters after the launch of the Liquid Jade S smartphone in Taipei yesterday.
Acer ranks No. 15 spot in Taiwan's smartphone market this year.
The Liquid Jade S is the fourth mid-priced smartphone that the company has launched domestically this year, as it seeks to cut into the market in the face of the severe competition in the high and low-end segments.
Huang said the company expects mid-tier 4G smartphones priced between NT$5,000 and NT$7,000 to dominate the local market next year.
As a result, Acer will launch another mid-priced model after the Lunar New Year holiday, he added.
“Acer will not sell high-priced products, as we believe Taiwanese customers have a strong sense of brand loyalty when it comes to high-end smartphones,” Huang said, while adding that neither does the firm plan to sell low-end products.
The Liquid Jade S is powered by MediaTek Inc’s (聯發科) octo-core processor and has a 13-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel front camera. The 5-inch smartphone mainly targets female buyers, the company said.
As of last month, the company has sold 80,000 smartphones locally and expects to sell a total of 100,000 units by the end of this year, Huang said.
“We aim to double our sales volume of smartphones next year, driven by our upcoming smartphones, and rank fifth in market share,” he said.
Acer’s smartphone shipments expanded by a robust 46 percent sequentially last quarter, but still far behind the company’s growth target of 58 percent because of supply shortages, he said.
However, the smartphone supply chain situation is back on track, and Acer expects its smartphone shipments to double from last quarter, Huang said.
Acer also expects its PC sales in the final quarter to grow slightly from the same period last year, mainly driven by the demand for both consumer and commercial notebook and desktop computers, Huang said.
He said that laptop sales during the Taipei leg of this year’s IT Month information technology trade fair grew more than 30 percent annually, and should help the company’s consolidated sales this quarter beat the NT$86.64 billion (US$2.78 billion) it posted in the same period last year, he added.
The exhibition will move on to Greater Taichung on Friday, then to Greater Kaohsiung on Dec. 25 and to Greater Tainan on Jan. 1.
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