Can Acer replace HP as world's number one PC vendor?‏

Last month, Acer Inc has surpassed Dell to become the world's second-largest computer vendor during the third quarter of 2009. Now, it seems that Acer is now looking at the world’s number one PC maker, Hewlett Packard. In the September quarter, HP has retained its position with about 20.2 percent of the market, whereas Acer reported 14 percent share of the market as compared to Dell's 12.7 percent.

Acer’s future plans

According to market sources, Acer has shipped in between 3.4-3.6 million notebooks (including netbooks) in September month, beating both HP and Dell. Recently, Mr. J.T. Wang, Acer Chairman has indicated that it will ship over 40 million notebooks in 2010, a number that would challenge the top position of HP in the portable PC sales. Mr. Wang also added that the company expects a growth of revenue by more than 70 percent over the next three years.

Reasons for the Acer’s success

In the past few years, Acer has become one of the fastest growing PC makers, outshining Lenovo and then Dell to become number two PC maker. Many experts said that the take-over of Gateway Inc. and controlling power of Packard Bell have strengthen Acer’s multi-brand strategy, which targeted to create Acer’s brand awareness in countries like US.

The reason for the company’s high sales and market shares is the low-cost Netbook PCs. Acer expects about 50% gain in sales, but if world’s economy grows, the company anticipates growing even more in the near future. Mr. Wang, who leads the company since 2008, also said that the company’s revenue will touch about $18 billion in this fiscal year. Further, the company anticipates that the handheld market will reach about $200 billion in 2010 and Acer expects a smaller pie out of this with $30 billion revenue. In contrast, analysts expect Acer’s sales to reach $25 billion in 2012.

In its third-quarter results, Acer has reported sales of $5.2 billion, a new high and up 5.3% year on year basis. The company also reports $107.8 million earnings, which jumped 14 percent quarter on quarter basis. However, if there was no shortage of certain components in its manufacturing units, the company would have done even better.

Acer Aspire One series

Aspire One series is the Acer’s line of subcompact notebook computers released in July 2008 that are based on the Intel Atom platform. Aspire One notebooks are behind the high sales of the company in last two years. Recently, the company has introduced Aspire 1820PT, a 11.6” notebook with a swivel screen that transforms it into a tablet computer. Acer also announced that it will launch Android based netbooks, which will be available by Q3 of 2009.

Entering into Smartphones array

Acer is not only working on PC market, but also entering into Smartphone business with the launch of its new Smartphone, the Acer Liquid A1. The new device is powered by Qualcomm’s 768 MHz Snapdragon processor and Android platform.