Acer sees strong Q1 PC sales
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Predictions are based on strong sales of Vista-equipped PCs and lower prices due to a CPU price war.
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A fast growth rate and recent acquisitions in the U.S. and Europe will extend Acer&#39;s lead over Lenovo Group as the world&#39;s third-largest PC vendor behind Hewlett-Packard&#160;and Dell, according to a study released by Gartner on Wednesday.Acer and Lenovo stood neck-and-neck in global PC shipments with 8.1 percent and 8 percent market shares, respectively, in the third quarter of 2007. Before acquisitions, Acer shipped 5.54 million PC units worldwide, a healthy 58 percent year-over-year increase. The growth rate overshadowed Lenovo, which shipped 5.48 million PCs, a 22.8 percent increase.Gartner&#39;s quarterly figures were compiled before&#160;Acer finished its acquisition of Gateway&#160;on Wednesday for $710 million. Acer also funded Gateway&#39;s proposed acquisition of European PC vendor Packard Bell&#160;for an undisclosed sum. That was&#160;a blow to Lenovo Group, which in early August revealed it was in discussions with Packard Bell over a possible acquisition.Packard Bell is largely a European vendor and has a small market share, similar to eMachines in the U.S before it was acquired by Gateway, said Diana Maranon, managing partner at Averil Capital Markets Groups. Maranon&#39;s company brokered Gateway&#39;s Packard Bell acquisition.An IDC report, also released Wednesday, listed Lenovo as the world&#39;s third-largest PC vendor but indicated&#160;Acer could overtake Lenovo&#160;with its growth rates in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa and Asia-Pacific markets, excluding Japan. Acer&#39;s U.S. PC shipments grew more than 100 percent during the third quarter, though it could face more pressure from competitors as it continues to expand, IDC said.In the U.S., Acer replicated the business strategy that made it highly successful in Europe: de-emphasize retail, sell through indirect channels, and offer low, competitive prices, said Roger Kay, founder and president of Endpoint Technologies Associates. Acer stands at the low end in the U.S. market, and the Gateway acquisition gives it a good position in the middle and high-end markets, Kay said.Gateway&#39;s worldwide shipments increased 8 percent in the third quarter, though U.S. shipments fell 14.4 year over year, Gartner said.Acer&#39;s global growth strategy is paying dividends and could affect Lenovo in the U.S. and Europe, Kay said.The Packard Bell acquisition was a defensive move for Acer to ensure Lenovo doesn&#39;t get a toehold in the European market, Kay said. Acer is already one of the top notebook sellers in Europe.Lenovo showed positive growth in global markets, but Acer&#39;s acquisitions block Lenovo from acquiring some valuable shelf space for product distribution, said Charles Smulders, managing vice president at Gartner, in an e-mail interview.Lenovo could not be reached for comment.Global PC shipments&#160;during the third quarter were 68.4 million, driven by high demand for laptops in the home market, Gartner said. HP was the world&#39;s top PC vendor, with 12.8 million units shipped, a 18.8 percent market share, and 33.1 percent year-over-year volume growth. Dell followed with a 14.4 percent market share, shipping 9.86 million units, a 3.5 percent increase.The survey includes desktop PCs, laptops, and x86 servers.
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Hewlett-Packard reported solid financial results for its fiscal first quarter, driven by growth in PCs and enterprise hardware. The results prompted HP to raise its forecast for the year ahead.Revenue for the quarter, which ended Jan. 31, was $28.5 billion, up 13 percent from a year earlier, HP announced Tuesday. Pro forma net income was $2.3 billion, or $0.86 per share, up from $1.8 billion, or $0.65 per share, a year earlier.The figures beat the expectations of financial analysts, who had forecast revenue of $27.6 billion and pro forma earnings per share of $0.81, according to Thomson First Call. The pro forma figure excludes one-time items that slightly inflated the results. Using generally accepted accounting principles, HP&#39;s profit was $2.1 billion, or $0.80 per share.HP&#39;s Personal Systems Group, which produces its laptop and desktop PCs, grew its revenue 24 percent from the same period a year earlier, to $10.8 billion, with unit shipments up 27 percent. Notebook sales climbed fastest, up 37 percent, while desktop sales climbed 15 percent.The division had already been doing well. HP extended its lead over Dell in PC sales last year, according to figures from Gartner. HP ended the year with 18.2 percent of the market, compared with 14.3 percent for Dell. The PC market overall grew 13.4 percent.HP may find it hard to sustain that growth rate, in part because it has to make comparisons with increasingly successful quarters in the year before, CEO Mark Hurd said on a conference call. Still, Hurd said, &quot;when you look at 24 percent growth, I think that&#39;s pretty darned strong.&quot;HP&#39;s imaging and printing group performed slightly less well, with revenue climbing 4 percent to $7.3 billion. Printer unit sales declined by 1 percent from a year earlier, thanks to weakness in the consumer market. Revenue from supplies, which includes HP&#39;s profitable ink business, climbed 6 percent, however.Revenue from the servers and storage group climbed 9 percent to $4.8 billion. Sales of blades and industry-standard servers were strong, while HP&#39;s PA-RISC and Alpha chip businesses continued to shrink. Services revenue climbed 11 percent year-over-year to $4.4 billion, while software sales climbed 11 percent to $666 million, HP said.Hurd said he was pleased with the results overall. He attributed them to successful cost-cutting efforts, the addition of 2,000 new HP sales staff in the past year, and a diverse product portfolio.HP generates an increasing amount of its business overseas, he said. Its biggest market continued to be Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where revenue grew 15 percent to $12.3 billion. Asia-Pacific revenue climbed 22 percent to $4.9 billion. Growth in the Americas was a sluggish 8 percent, generating $11.2 billion.&quot;We generated 69 percent of our revenue outside the U.S., with emerging markets driving significant growth,&quot; Hurd said.The company now expects second-quarter revenue of $27.7 billion to $27.9 billion, and pro forma earnings per share of $0.83 or $0.84. That&#39;s above what analysts polled by Thomson had been estimating: pro forma profit of $0.82 and revenue of $27.4 billion.
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Blog: For the first quarter of 2007, Taiwan-based Acer has grabbed a larger market share than Lenovo, according to data collected by iSuppli.
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The biggest question: How is Acer going to handle the presentation of three PC brands to the public?
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(InfoWorld) - Lenovo Group reclaimed the number three spot among PC vendors during the second quarter, pushing rival Acer back into fourth place. But Acer's exceptionally fast growth means the company isÂ likely to overtake LenovoÂ as number three for the entire year, if current trends continue. Acer has been on a roll in recent quarters, grabbing market share and putting pressure on Lenovo. During the first quarter of 2007, Acer tied Lenovo for third place, with both companies reporting shipments of nearly 4 million PCs, giving each company 6.7 percent of the market, according to IDC. Acer, which has made taking the number three spot from Lenovo aÂ principal goal for the year, was able to match Lenovo during the first quarter because of seasonal buying trends in China. Lenovo depends heavily on China, where it has long dominated PC sales. The company's first-quarter sales were slowed by the Chinese New Year holiday, a time when PC sales dive in China. Lenovo saw its first-quarter shipments increase 17.4 percent over the previous year, while Acer's shipments rose 41.4 percent, IDC said. Acer's first quarter sales weren't hit during by Chinese New Year because the company remains a relatively minor player in China, despite having roots in Taiwan, which shares a common language and culture. Acer's presence is much stronger in Taiwan, which also celebrates Chinese New Year. But Taiwan's relatively small population means the holiday had a minor impact on Acer's overall sales during that period. During the second quarter, Lenovo was able to reclaim the number three spot, with a 22.3 percent increase in unit shipments, to almost 4.9 million units, IDC said.Â Acer fell to the number four spot, but showed strong growth during the period. The company's shipments rose 55.4 percent over the same period last year, to almost 4.3 million units -- just 600,000 units fewer than Lenovo. That relatively narrow gap puts Acer within striking distance of Lenovo, assuming current growth trends continue through the rest of the year. Acer did well around the world during the second quarter, with the company posting unit shipment growth of 30 percent or more in every region. The company did particularly well in the Americas, IDC said. "New retail and dealer partner agreements are quickly expanding the company's access to the market, contributing to volume gains," it said. Â
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An executive said laptop sales are on track, despite a report that HP is reigning in PC orders.
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Just not in UK Acer will pile into the SMB server business in Europe this year, but UK companies will have to wait until September before they see the benefit of the renewed drive.â¦
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Analysts at iSuppli increasr predictions for PC sales in 2007, citing stronger-than-anticipated demand for laptops.
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Acer has passed Lenovo Group as the world&#39;s third largest PC vendor with its&#160;purchase of Gateway, and now it&#39;s&#160;gunning for U.S. giant Dell.Next year, Acer could take up to a 12 percent share of the global PC market, putting it in the position to challenge Dell, said J.T. Wang, chairman of Acer, at the company&#39;s third-quarter investors&#39; conference in Taipei on Friday.Shipments by Acer have been growing fast this year due in part to a focus on laptop PCs, the hottest segment of the PC market, and the company&#39;s strategy of working closely with distributors.Acer&#39;s shipments grew 58 percent year over year in the third quarter, according to Gartner. The Taiwanese PC vendor accounted for 8.1 percent of global PC shipments during the quarter, compared to its 5.9 percent share during the same time last year. The figures do not include Gateway, which&#160;Acer bought&#160;for $710 million last week.Dell&#39;s unit shipments grew 3.5 percent during the quarter, but it still lost market share compared to last year, finishing in second place at 14.4 percent compared to 15.9 percent.Hewlett-Packard kept its title of the world&#39;s biggest PC vendor by shipments during the quarter with an 18.8 percent share, compared to a 16.1 percent share a year earlier. Lenovo, the fourth place vendor, took an 8 percent share, compared to 7.5 percent last year. Market researcher IDC puts&#160;Lenovo ahead of Acer&#160;according to its third-quarter PC shipment figures.&quot;We believe we can maintain strong growth momentum through 2008,&quot; said Wang.Acer forecasts it will still grow by a double-digit figure next year, and faster than the global PC industry. Executives also said the fourth quarter of this year looks to be a good quarter, with no indication of a decrease in demand for PCs.&quot;We have not seen any slowdown. Demand is still quite good,&quot; said Gianfranco Lanci, president of Acer. He forecast unit shipments to grow 10 percent to 20 percent over the third quarter. The company did not say how many PCs it sold in the third quarter, but Gartner puts the figure at nearly 5.55 million units.In the fourth quarter, Acer will also start adding Gateway shipments to its figures, which will add to its market share.Gateway sold only 865,000 PCs in its biggest market, the U.S., during the third quarter, down from 1.01 million the same time last year, according to Gartner. Lanci believes a stronger laptop PC lineup will boost Gateway&#39;s market share figures in the U.S. going forward because the mobile PC is the hottest segment in the industry. New Gateway laptops could be out as early as the first quarter of next year.And Dell isn&#39;t sitting still. Efforts to turn around its business finally paid off this quarter when its worldwide unit shipments rose for the first time in four quarters. It&#39;s a huge company with a lot of resources and could still turn itself around. Acer&#39;s executives said size was becoming ever more important in the global battle for PC market share because bigger companies can force suppliers to cut their prices. That means Dell, as the second biggest PC maker, is still in a strong position.REFERENCES:Wall Street Beat: Acer masters the Art of War, Aug. 31, 2007Acer completes Gateway acquisition, Oct. 17, 2007Acer to acquire Gateway for $710 million, Aug. 27, 2007Gateway brand to expand after Acer purchase, Aug. 27, 2007
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Just a few months after Acer's purchase of the American PC maker, the two companies are functioning as one.
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Strong sales of new and old products led Microsoft to its fastest-growing Q1 since 1999, the company reported today.
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Calling Mr K Canute Acer will stick with its policy of pushing up average selling prices for its hardware, despite failing to put a floor under prices so far this year.â¦
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The $710 million deal gives Acer a leg up in its battle with Lenovo, but important hurdles must be cleared before Gateway will turn around its lagging sales figures.
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Hewlett-Packard Co.   expects a strong back-to-school season for its notebook  computer business and sees no signs of the consumer laptop PC  market slowing, an HP executive said on Wednesday.
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TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Taiwan personal computer vendor Acer Inc. expects its computer shipments to increase 30 percent to 40 percent this year, a reduction from previous sales forecasts.
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For the first time, sales top $1 billion in one quarter, researcher says.