14 DAY TRIAL // Acer, one of the world's leading vendors of portable and personal computer systems, has recently announced that it plans to launch more competitive ultra-thin notebooks in March-April, next year, as it expects this market to grow. However, according to the company's Chairman, Mr. JT Wang, its main competitors, HP and Dell aren't as interested in this market segment, as they continue to lower the prices on their mainstream notebooks, instead of investing more into promoting ultra-thin notebooks.
According to recent news-article on Digitimes, Acer's JT Wang believes that there's a lot of potential for the ultra-thin market segment, despite the fact that Acer's competitors are currently dropping the prices on their mainstream notebooks, as a means to compete with the company's ultra-thin notebooks. In addition, Mr. Wang urged Intel to continue and focus its development efforts on the ultra-thin segment, as the chip maker plans to mainly push mainstream notebook platforms, in 2010.
To prove that the consumer demand for ultra-thin notebooks is actually strong, Mr. Wang revealed that 50% of its notebook sales, at the IT Month 2009 consumer trade fair in Taiwan, were ultra-thin models. In addition, the company expects that its ultra-thin notebooks to account for about 30% of its total notebook shipments in 2010, with plans to launch new models in March-April. However, the chairman is worried about the price gap between mainstream notebooks and ultra-thin notebooks, which could ultimately affect the segment and consequently determine Acer to change its forecast.
In related news, the company also expects its total shipments to increase 30% a year, reaching an on-year growth of 15% for the company's 2010 consolidated revenues. Ultra-thin laptops and netbooks should ultimately allow the company to achieve this goal, as these two form factors are currently the most popular.