Acer looks set to comfortably achieve its notebook shipments goal of more than 30 million units for 2009, and is looking to mark two major milestones in 2010, shipping more than 40 million units, and becoming the number one vendor, according to chairman JT Wang.

To achieve its goals, Acer will have to beat the market average in terms of shipment growth for the year. It will also face fierce competition from Hewlett-Packard (HP), which is also likely to cross the 40 million units mark in 2010, according to market watchers. The top-two vendors are also expected to widen the shipments gap between them and third-ranked Dell.

Earlier in the year, Acer forecast its 2010 notebook shipments could reach between 33 million and 37 million units, the sources indicated. But strong performance in the second half has given the company more confidence prompting it to raise its forecast to 40 million.

As to expectations for fourth-quarter 2009, Acer originally expected shipments to grow 10% sequentially, although component shortages could be a factor, according to comments by Wang in previous reports. Despite efforts by Acer to prepare for shortages, supplies of optical drives, panels, hard disk drives, and graphics chips remain tight, and the prospects of the company seeing 10% growth in the final quarter currently remain uncertain. However, orders in the first three quarters of the year were better than expected, meaning whether or not Acer eventually manages to meet its fourth-quarter target, it will still realize its shipments goal for the year, Wang said.

In just two years Acer has managed to double its annual notebook shipments, from 15.4 million units in 2007, largely thanks to effective marketing and its success in the netbook segment. Wang pointed out that while main rivals HP and Dell focus on the enterprise market, Acer has instead targeted the small- to medium-size business and consumer markets. Acer's biggest strength lies in the netbook and ultra-thin notebook segments, Wang commented.

By: DocMemory
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