Acer races past rivals for Q4 notebook sales
PC manufacturer hits its target of grabbing number-three spot in the mobile PC market
Acer sold more notebooks than any of the top five manufacturers during the last quarter of 2006, market watcher iSuppli has revealed.
According to figures released by iSuppli, Acer outpaced the overall market growth rate by three times during Q4 2006. Acer shipped 3.4 million mobile PCs, up by 45.6 per cent from the 2.3 million it sold in Q3. This resulted in Acer moving from fourth to third place with a market share of 14.3 per cent in Q4, up by three per cent on the 11.3 per cent share it had in Q3. ISuppli attributed the firm’s success to its aggressive pricing strategy, particularly in Europe.
However, Toshiba fell to fourth place because of disappointing unit sales, which fell by 1.1 per cent to 2.45 million units in Q4 2006.
Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst for computer platforms at iSuppli, said: “Acer came, Acer saw and Acer conquered in the fourth quarter. The company has been very public about its intention to capture the number-three spot in the mobile-PC market. These fourth-quarter rankings show that the company is putting its money where its mouth is.”
Hewlett-Packard (HP) held onto the number-one spot and recorded the second fastest growth rate in the top five at 32.8 per cent.
Dell retained its second place, but recorded the weakest performance during Q4. Shipments declined to 3.52 million, down by 1.5 per cent. ISuppli attributed this to Dell’s head-to-head battle with HP, as well as increased pressure from other global OEMs in the sector. China’s Lenovo held on to fifth place with 1.9 million units shipped, up by 9.1 per cent.
According to iSuppli, the success of Acer and Lenovo points to Asia-Pacific PC OEMs becoming the dominant force in the long term. In 2005, the combined desktop and notebook sales of Acer and Lenovo accounted for 10.8 per cent of the market. In 2006 this grew to 12.5 per cent.
Wilkins said: “Looking at the top-five PC OEMs they are separated into the major and minor leagues, with HP and Dell alone in the majors. However, today’s minor leaguers could be tomorrow’s majors. Current market-share developments for the Asia-Pacific mobile-PC OEMs could give us a glimpse into the future of top-tier competition in the market.”
In related news, Acer has agreed to supply Vista-compatible versions of Symantec’s Norton Internet Security 2007 on its notebooks and desktops. Customers will get a 90-day free trial of the full suite.