Acer to begin shipping NBs from mainland China in August

Taipei, June 3, 2004 (CENS)--To meet the competition from rival firms the world over, Acer Inc., one of the world's leading vendors of personal computers, has decided to ship notebook PCs directly from mainland China in August.

To that end, Acer is having talks with contract manufacturers such as Quanta Computer Inc., Compal Electronics Inc., and Wistron Corp. to produce NBs in the mainland. Acer expected it would move production of NBs to the mainland in August and is now taking measures to tackle the problem of customs clearance and air freight booking. The company plans to ship the products by air and sea combined.

Recently Acer has debuted two brand-new designs of NB models, which have undergoing two years of development at a total cost of US$3 million. The two models will be contract manufactured by Quanta and Compal, respectively.

Acer boasted it targets to ship four million and six million NBs this year and next, respectively. The company aims to rank among the world's top-three brands in the next two or three years. As the world PC market is matured, Acer is enhancing designs of identical products by commissioning designing work to the U.S.-based Smart Design Co.

Acer President J.T. Wang said his company has to elevate the industrial design capacity as it has squeezed into the rank of the world's top-five PC brands. Wang said his company is making all-out efforts to design suitable products that consumers will recognize them as the products designed by someone knowing the nature of PCs very well.

Wang stressed the new-wave competition of the world's information technology industry will focus on the appearance and nature of the products. In line with the new competing climate, Acer designed the two brand-new NBs by emphasizing simplicity and easy use.

Of them, the TravelMate 3200 NB is made of carbon fiber in case to lock in on the commercial market by entrusting production to Quanta; and the Aspire 1800 NB will target on the household and consumer market by commissioning production to Compal.

With the introduction of these two brand-new designs, Acer estimated it would double sales of NBs in the second half of this year from the same period of last year.