Asus Surpasses Acer in NB Shipments in October

Taipei, Nov.7, 2012 (CENS)--The top two Taiwanese NB vendors Asus and Acer saw mixed shipment performance in October, with Asus shipping 1.8 million units to lead Acer's 1.6 million units. In the third quarter, Asus exceeded Acer in NB shipments in the U.S., Asia Pacific, and China.

A deputy manager of Taiwan-based Digitimes Research says, despite NB shipments rebounding in September, shipments by brand vendors dropped in October due to unexpected Win 8 effect. As for outlook and despite additional touch-NB shipments delayed due to Microsoft's strict certification, strong pull-in deliveries, market demand is not expected to grow much in November.

In October, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Acer both saw NB shipments decline more than 30% from a month earlier, due to relatively strong pull-in deliveries in September, with Asus surpassing Acer's shipments for the third time in 2012.

However, a representative of Acer says instead of focusing on market share, the firm aims to launch Win 8 products and streamline product models. Acer plans to collaborate with distributors in Europe, Australia, and Taiwan to set up customer experience centers for touch NBs, and to cooperate with Microsoft of the U.S. to display Acer's touch NBs.

As for Acer's cellphone business, the firm's chairman in Greater China S.L. Lin says vendors as Nokia and Sony continue to suffer profit losses, while Acer is apprehensive to invest in smartphone research and development partly due to high cost.

Acer will reportedly return to the smartphone market in India, focusing on middle & low-priced markets, also to start selling smartphones in Taobao Marketplace, an online retailer in China.