Acer Inc (宏碁) yesterday said it expects its shipments of Windows 10-based PCs to account for more than 50 percent of its total shipments by the first quarter of next year from the current 20 percent, on the back of the firm’s increasing launches of Windows 10 devices.
“Although 80 percent of our current inventories at the retail channels are still Windows 8-based PCs, the situation is actually far better than three months earlier,” Acer president of corporation business planning and operation Tiffany Huang (黃資婷) said.
“By the first quarter of next year, Acer’s shipments of Windows 10 PCs is expected to be more than the shipments of Windows 8 PCs, driven by the expanded offering of the Windows 10 products,” Huang told reporters on the sidelines of Acer’s launch of the new Windows 10 notebook and all-in-one PC in Taipei.
At the launch, Acer chief executive officer Jason Chen (陳俊聖) said the company has more than 100 devices running on Microsoft’s latest operating system, from the smaller-screen handsets to the larger-display of desktops and all-in-one PCs.
“Acer is the No. 1 Windows 10-based PC sales in Europe and Asia over the past few months,” Chen said, citing GfK’s latest point-of-sales tracking.
When asked if the high inventory level of Windows 8 products would affect Acer’s PC shipments outlook for this quarter, Huang said the firm held a positive outlook for this quarter, but the key to accelerating the inventory digestion depended on the global economy.
Last quarter, Acer’s sales dropped 21.44 percent annually, but boosted 11.81 percent quarterly to NT$67.31 billion (US$2.07 billion) last quarter.
Huang said she predicted the quarterly growth momentum extending into this quarter, fueled by the Windows 10 pull-in effect, the strong shipments in chromebooks, 2-in-1 notebook computers, gaming notebooks and cloudbooks.
Market researcher Gartner Inc on Thursday last week said that the global PC market has experienced price hikes of 10 percent this year due to sharp appreciation of the US dollar against local currencies.
Huang said Acer is monitoring the markets and has no plans to raise its product prices, despite volatile currency changes in emerging markets this year.
Huang said consumer feedback to the products in the market are likely to affect Acer’s pricing strategy and the company will adjust prices if necessary.
Acer’s stock price surged 5.99 percent to close at NT$14.15 in Taipei trading yesterday, outperforming the TAIEX, which gained 1.51 percent.
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