14 DAY TRIAL // Last year was a very slow year for the IT industry as a whole, but companies still managed to post on-year increases because 2008 was even worse in terms of marketing prowess. This year, with the economy on the mend, hardware makers and PC suppliers have been posting positive results with very few exceptions. This managed to raise the spirits of most every company in the world, and HP and Acer appear to be especially eager to score big points. Apparently, as reports would have it, the two players will compete quite tightly in terms of sales during the third quarter.
Digitimes says that Hewlett-Packard intends to ship a total of 11 million notebooks during the ongoing third Quarter of 2010. Compared to its performance during Q2, when it managed a total of 8.5 million units, this would imply a sequential growth of 30%. it should be noted that the company expects key component prices to drop and the exchange rate of the Euro to stabilize later in this quarter. As such, it increased its September shipments forecast.
Acer hopes to perform almost as well as its rival during this period, with the target amount of notebooks set at 10 million, or 15-20% more than the 8.1 million from the second quarter. Similar to the former, the PC maker is waiting on the economy and prices to stabilize. In order to correctly respond to current conditions, the outfit decided to postpone several component orders from July to August and September. What remains is for costs and exchange rates to settle down, at which point both players will be able to move more freely.
In related news, Quanta hopes to increase its own shipments by 10-20% in the ongoing quarter, compared to the previous three months, while Compal and Wistron hope to grow, sequentially, by 5-6% and 10-15%, respectively.