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Acer's Sales Shrinkage Worries PC Manufacturers

2011/04/08 | By Steve Chuang

Taipei, April 8, 2011 (CENS)--Suffering a shrinkage in PC sales, Acer Inc., one of the world's top three PC vendors, has been forced to adjust downward its full-year sales projection twice so far this year, which will likely jeopardize its major contract manufacturers.

Regarded as one of main reasons behind Gianfranco Lanci's resignation from the firm's CEO post, Acer's unimproved PC sales have triggered anxiety in Taiwan's PC industry because most of insiders believe that the firm is likely to cut its contract orders in the short term amid sales decline.

Now, Acer's PC manufacturer list includes Compal Electronics Inc., Wistron Corp. and Quanta Computer Inc., with Compal Communications Inc. supplying smartphones.

Among them, Wistron, which delivers only 28% of its PC output and 39% of non-PC products to Acer, will keep a better shape if Acer decides to cut PC order volumes. Unfazed by Acer's bad news, the firm has projected optimistically its overall shipment for the second quarter of this year to keep rising 10% from the first quarter.

Having tried to cut shipment dependence on PCs over the past few years, Wistron will see the product line contribute only 55% to the firm's total sales this year, with non-PC products such as LCD TVs and handsets to make up the remainder.

Compared to Wistron and Quanta, Compal, however, is more anxious about Acer's declining PC sales, for the producer ships 34% of its PCs and only 15% of non-PC products to the client. The firm admitted that widespread pessimism in the PC industry associated with Acer's sales drop and CEO departure has forced some of its clients to adjust their PC sales projections for the second quarter of this year. But Compal remains confident of scoring growing sales in the second quarter, mainly because of seasonal factors.