Acer Aspire One netbooks
Acer, the Taiwanese computer maker increased its worldwide sales in 2009 by 29% to displace Dell as the second largest PC maker in the world. According to Gartner’s estimates, Acer had a worldwide market share of 13.5% behind HP’s 19.8% even though the growth rate of Acer in 2009 was much faster (29%) than HP (11%) in worldwide PC shipments. Dell the 3rd largest PC maker had a negative growth of 9% in 2009. According to Gartner Acer established itself as the leader of the sub-$500 consumer mobile PC segment in key regions and its improved branding strategies also helped it to work better with channel partners.
In light of the above developments, it was not surprising when Acer’s founder Stan Shih made the following comments in Taipei based Commercial Times recently: “The trend for low-priced computers will last for the coming years. But US computer makers just don’t know how to put such products on the market… US computer brands may disappear over the next 20 years just like what happened to US television brands.”
As per Digitimes estimates Acer is projected to surpass HP in 2011 to become the world’s top computer maker. The progress has been driven by aggressively priced and state of the art PCs, especially netbooks. However there could be one stumbling block in Stan Shih’s prediction coming true which is Apple, Inc. Apple has been slowly and steadily increasing its market share even though it traditionally prices its products well above HP or Dell leave alone Acer. Hence it remains to be seen what happens to HP or Dell or Apple in the next 20 years and their demise largely remains in the realm of conjecture for now.
