For yet another month, Acer saw an increase in consolidated revenues - now up 5.6% on year to NT$43.5 billion. This is 2.1% higher than last month’s figures (NT$42.9 billion), and is in fact a new record high.
With the Christmas season looming up, there’s certainly a lot of potential for further gains. So, will we see even more progress from Acer come 2007?
[News via Digitimes]
While Dell plays the love-love game with Google, Acer has decided to play catch-up with a recently announced multi-year partnership with Yahoo!.
The deal starts with a co-branded toolbar and start page (based on the Yahoo! personalised home page, of course), which will be preloaded on all Acer PCs worldwide starting from 1st October, 2006. Localised versions will be developed for many countries as well.
In Greenpeace’s first Guide to Greener Electronics, Acer was ranked 12th out of the 14 top mobile and PC producers worldwide. The scorecard ranks companies on their use of environmentally harmful chemicals and electronic waste recycling, so it normally wouldn’t be surprising for an Asian-based producer like Acer to score so badly.
But even LG Electronics - a Taiwan-based company like Acer - ranked 7th on the list, while five other Asian companies were ranked within the Top 10, indicating that Acer has quite a lot of work to do playing catch up.
All 14 companies, however, failed to reach the necessary standards for a “green” ranking.
[News via WebWire]
20% off at Tesco, and a whole bucket load of complaints pour in. Well, that’s what happened recently when Tesco advertised that it would be selling “all camcorders, laptops, digital cameras and sat navs” - including an Acer Aspire laptop - at 20% off at selected stores nationwide. It seems that Tesco ran out of stock of a certain JVC camcorder and Aspire notebook, and was reported to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
Not surprisingly, the complaints were not upheld as Tesco managed to demonstrate that it made sufficient effort to “…anticipate demand… and maintain stocking levels.”
But this does show how popular Acer Aspires are, eh?
P.S.: Anyone knows the exact model of the notebook involved?
[News via IT Week]
India, Russia and now, South Africa. These are countries where Acer has done remarkably well in recent years - with a recent news release confirming that the World No. 3 notebook vendor has taken top spot in South Africa’s notebook market.
Its 48% year-on-year growth allowed it to capture a 23% notebook market share, pushing it a step upwards from its previous position of number two.
As such, Acer now holds a 10% market share in the combined notebook and desktop market in South Africa for the second quarter of 2006.
Acer might have surrendered the title of World No. 3 notebook vendor to Toshiba in the first quarter (Q1), but it has managed to regain it by virtue of a 42% increase in shipments in the second quarter (Q2).
While there no single factor for this strong global gain has been provided, Acer’s recent moves to strengthen partnerships with its distribution channel have succeeded in fortifying its No. 1 position in Europe’s notebook market, and may have played some part in the worldwide statistics as well.
According to statistics from Gartner Dataquest, Acer had a 11.1% market share in Q2 - with only Dell and Hewlett-Packard with higher percentages.
[News via Digitimes]
Acer and Toshiba are claiming that Dell is bidding on notebook-related phrases containing their brand names (i.e. Acer notebooks, Toshiba notebooks, etc.) on Google Adwords - the largest online contextual advertising network. This (mis)use of registered trademarks not owned by Dell is a violation of fair trading acts, and has incensed Acer executives to the extent that Acer has threatened to sue Dell over this issue.
If these allegations are true, it will not be the first time Dell has done something like this. Only a few months back in February, Dell registered Acer’s name in its Adwords campaign - only to face a cease-and-desist letter (which it complied with then). It will also not be the first time Dell is getting rapped over its advertising strategies, with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) knocking Dell for its misleading advertising recently.
Nevertheless, there is still no evidence of Dell’s wrongdoing - though I have to admit I’ve seen my fair share of Dell ads on this blog - which, if you might recall, is The Acer Blog. 
[News via Australian IT]
It’s not often that a business magazine like Forbes puts a full scale editorial on Taiwan-based Acer on its cover. So, anyone remotely interested in Acer, its rise and of course, the key figure behind that rise shouldn’t waste a second in putting on their reading glasses, and rushing over to Forbes website.
But for those who are short of time, here’s a concise summary. One: Since Gianfranco Lanci (Italian) took over as President of Acer, the company has grown by leaps and bounds to firmly sit on the World No. 4 PC vendor position. Two: Acer and its president exemplifies low-key proceedings that are so effective in ensuring well-run companies. Three: Acer’s growth has largely been due to the lack of attention from its bigger rivals (or those that used to be).
Four: Acer willingly pushes for improved customer support (something you wouldn’t have seen from some of its larger rivals until recently). Last but not least, as we have already seen, Acer is more than willing to take the fight to the living room, i.e. pursue digital convegence.
And… that’s about it. While there’s nothing more devout Acer followers wouldn’t already know, it’s nice to see Acer getting the limelight it deserves.
