Acer Plans to Take Notebook, Netbook Space by Storm

Acer expects its global PC market share to increase by 2 to 3 percent in an economy that has brought greatly lowered expectations for PC sales and shipments for 2009, and that has companies such as Dell and Lenovo looking at reorganizations and other measures.

In spite of that market share gain, Acer told Reuters that its netbook PC shipments this year could be a third lower than its previous target because of slackened demand due to the recession. Acer says it expects to ship 10 million to 12 million netbooks compared with a previous forecast of 12 million to 15 million. That is still higher than the 5 million that Reuters says analysts predicted.

PC sales are expected to be hit hard by the current recession in 2009, as many organizations plan to stretch out their technology refresh cycles for yet another year.

But the strength of Acer and Hewlett-Packard relative to rivals Dell and Lenovo was forecast by analysts in autumn 2008.

FBR Research says fourth-quarter PC supply chain checks indicated stronger-than-expected notebook shipments for HP and Acer and weaker-than-expected shipments for Dell and Lenovo. But the company notes that nearly all notebook makers had reduced their fourth-quarter shipment expectations based on slowing global demand.

In a statement issued in January, Acer said:

Acer expects Q408 operating margin to be better or similar to Q308, while consolidated revenue has been impacted by overall market situation, with a negative growth with 5 percent to 10 percent compared to Q407.

In the current worldwide economic situation, even though most of the channels have been more cautious and less willing to carry inventory by year-end, Acer's product demand has remained healthy and stable.