Acer Sees Shortage as Smartphone Demand Surges

A surge in demand
for the latest smartphones has taken the industry by surprise and left
it facing a shortage in the key end-of-year holiday sales season, a
chief of Acer’s cellphone unit said.

"The industry as a whole is
struggling with supply. It is a bit of a scramble," Aymar de
Lencquesaing told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.

Research firms have ramped up forecasts for 2010 smartphone sales and now expect the market to double from a year ago.

The fast sales growth is causing shortages of components, with manufacturers scrambling for parts such as phone screens.

Acer,
the world’s second-largest PC vendor, entered the smartphone industry
last year. It will sell "a little bit under" one million phones this
year, giving it market share of less than half a percent, de
Lencquesaing said.

It aims to reach 6 percent of the market in 2014, which would mean selling 30 million smartphones.

Acer said it was looking to use other software platforms in its phones alongside Google’s Android system.

"We
like to look at open operating systems in this market — then you have
to look at Android, you have to look at Windows Phone 7 and you have to
look at MeeGo," de Lencquesaing said.

"We will probably again have Windows Phones, under Windows Phone 7. There is room for more than one operating system."

MeeGo is a new smartphone platform, developed by Intel and Nokia, with phones using it expected to reach consumers next year.

(Editing by David Hulmes)