Acer became world's No. 4 PC brand in Q4, 2004

Taipei, Jan. 21, 2005 (CENS)--Acer Inc. notched up one spot to unseat Fujitsu Siemens Computer as the world's No. 4 personal-computer brand in the fourth quarter of last year, with a shipment of 2.22 million personal computers (PCs) accounting for 4.3% of the world market, according to a market research organization.

Research fellows of International Data Corp. (IDC) pointed out that throughout last year the Taiwanese PC supplier saw its revenue surge 33% from the previous year, much higher than the industrial average of 13.7%.

Their studies showed that Dell Computer, Hewlett-Packard (HP), International Business Machines (IBM), Acer and Fujitsu Siemens were the world's top five PC brands last quarter, with a market share of 17%, 16%, 5.7%, 4.35% and 4%, respectively.

Last quarter alone, Acer raked in total revenues of NT$70 billion (US$2.18 billion at US$1:NT$32) from sales at home and overseas combined, helping float its annual revenue by 42.7% from 2003 to NT$224.9 billion (US$7 billion). The company projected combined 2005 revenue at NT$283.6 billion (US$8.8 billion).

Over the past five years, the company has maintained the sales growth pace of its Acer-branded information-technology products at 50% to 60% annually, to an estimated NT$180 billion (US$5.6 billion) last year. It projected the sales to rise to NT$270 billion (US$8.4 billion) by the end of this year, with a total shipment of 10 million PCs including six million notebook computers. Throughout last year, the company delivered 3.41 million notebook computers.

Acer executives attributed its huge fourth-quarter 2004 growth mostly to hefty sales growth in European market, which accounted for 70% of its business. The company has planned to expand sales in American market this year.

The company is moving toward No. 3 goal by 2007. It has planned to increase outsourcing procurement to US$7.5 billion throughout this year, an increase of 50% from last year's US$5 billion.

Local contract electronics-device suppliers including Hon Hai Precision Industrial, Quanta Computer Wistron, Giga-Byte Technology, and Micro Star International are expected to benefit from Acer's outsourcing increase.