14 DAY TRIAL // End-users would likely know by now that the netbook market soared during 2009 and was the main factor behind the growth of some PC vendors. Some of the netbook makers even focused on this market segment, the result being higher revenues and profits. One company that could be said to have benefited the most from this market area was Acer, which even managed to take the second place as a worldwide PC supplier and the first place as a netbook vendor. This position, however, seems, according to recent rumors, ready to be fought over.
A recent report published by Digitimes states that, even though Acer plans to keep focusing mainly on the low-cost mobile PC segment, it will face strong competition from HP, Samsung Electronics and Asutek Computer. The report says that Acer is making efforts to maintain its leading status, but that achieving this goal may prove rather difficult.
The company expects its netbook shipments for 2010 to either stay flat or grow only slightly on-year. On the opposing front, HP aims to increase its total shipments to six million, with ASUS and Samsung also intent on achieving seven-eight million. If they succeed, these three will significantly narrow the existing shipment gap, putting pressure on Acer.
Part of Acer's plan to maintain netbook supremacy has already been enacted, with the PC maker being the first to introduce a netbook based on the NVIDIA ION 2 mobile platform. The company also plans to devise products running the upcoming Google Chrome OS. These laptops are slated for launch sometime around the middle of the ongoing year and Acer hopes to ship about one million during the first year.
Acer will have to be especially aggressive on the netbook front, because it reportedly has no plans of joining the media tablet-PC battle and, even more, it has recently been reported to have stated its intention to put off entering the e-reader market as well.