Acer defies analysts during strong first quarter

 

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By Reuters

Posted on 23 Apr 2008 at 11:15

Acer has posted strong results for its first quarter and raised its sales forecast, defying predictions of a retail slump.

Acer says uncertainty in the wake of the US mortgage crisis has begun to ease and retail sales had not been hit by a slowing US economy, as some industry watchers had forecast.

Though the company did record a drop in its net profit it put this down to one-off investment, and noted that an increase in operating income from T$2.74 billion from T$1.95 billion a year ago.

Acer expects particularly strong growth from its laptop division, with shipments estimated to rise more than 40% this year, says chairman JT Wang.

"We see good progress on notebooks, especially in Brazil, Russia, India, China and we also just started doing business in Japan, which is a market we've never touched before," he says.

As part of its expansion, Acer aims to ship 25-30m PCs this year, up from a previous target of more than 25m. The company says it shipped 20-21m PCs last year, of which 17-18m were laptops.

To diversify its product line, Acer plans to sell low-cost PCs this year, following a popular reception for such models.

Acer also plans to launch laptops with WiMax capabilities in June or July, with the new high speed wireless technology seen as a fresh catalyst for the laptop sector.