Acer No. 9 desktop PC brand in mainland China in Q3

Taipei, Dec. 22, 2003 (CENS)--Taiwan's Acer brand desktop personal computers took the ninth place in sales in the mainland China market in the third quarter this year, according to China Center for Information Industry Development (CCID) Consulting Co., Ltd.

Statistics compiled by CCID Consulting, a leading and authoritative market investigation firm, showed that the second-half desktop PC sales in mainland China have got rid of the impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which spread widely in the first half, and have been growing in the past few months. In mainland China, a total of 2.74 million desktop PCs were sold in the third quarter, up 27.73% from the previous quarter and the highest quarterly volume this year.

According to CCID Consulting, mainland's desktop PC sales volume is expected to hit a new quarterly high of 3.25 million units in the fourth quarter. The market investigation company also estimated that the desktop PC sales in the mainland would total 10.52 million units this year due to the recovering buying willingness among both the education and business segments.

According to CCID Consulting's data, the top-10 desktop PC brands in mainland China in the third quarter were Legend (Legend Group), Founder (Beijing Founder Electronics), Tongfang (Tsinghua Tongfang Co.), Dell (Dell Computer Corp. of the U.S.), TCL (TCL King Electronics Co.), IBM (IBM of the U.S.), H-P (Hewlett-Packard Co. of the U.S.), Hedy (Hedy Computer Co. Ltd.), Acer (Acer Inc. of Taiwan) and Start (Start Computer Group Co.)


Mainland's leading IT hardware maker Legend Group maintained its long-term No. 1 position with a 27.2% desktop market share in the third quarter, much higher than recorded by other rivals. Acer, which ranked No. 9 with a 1.8% share, claimed that it expects to win higher share in the mainland market in the fourth quarter after a series of active business deployment.

Industry sources said that several big international brands, including the No. 4, 6 and 7 Dell (with market share of about 5%), IBM (about 2%) and HP (about 2%), would hardly shake the leading roles of local brands in the huge market.

Scott Lin, president of Acer's Greater China region operations, said that Acer is preparing a "real" business war next year by intensively pouring marketing expenses, though the Taiwan computer brand has been enjoying stable sales growth in mainland China. Industry sources said that Acer's computer sales in mainland China became more and more smooth after the company tied up with local partner Hon Hai Precision Ind. Co. Ltd., which currently supplies desktop PCs to Acer from plants across the Taiwan Strait.