Acer, on a worldwide basis, might still only be the 4th largest PC supplier.

However, based on recent statistics, it has overtaken Dell (World No. 1 PC supplier) in the New Zealand PC market to take No. 2.

Ahead of Acer at No. 1 is Hewlett-Packard, Dell’s deadliest rival - at least, according to almost every analyst out there.

Perhaps this success of Acer (and concomitant failure by Dell) could serve as a harbinger for the world stage?

[News via Computerworld]

With all the talk of HP gaining ground on the World No. 1 PC supplier, Dell, many have forgotten to note similiar gains by Acer on Lenovo - the current World No. 3 supplier. A senior analyst over at iSuppli recently said that Acer’s Q1 2006 PC shipments were up 41% compared to the first quarter of 2005.

It might also be interesting to know that Acer has grown its market share for the last five quarters and in almost all of its key markets, especially Asia, the Middle East and the United States.

If this trend continues (which I believe it should), it is only a matter of time before Acer usurps the World No. 3 position from Lenovo.

A few days back, Acer reported consolidated sales of $667.44 million for April, which is an increase of 11.9% from last year, but a drop from March’s $990.29 million. Reasons provided for the fall include seasonal holidays, international currency fluctiation and other economic changes.

As a result, Acer has attempted to assuage investors and analysts by announcing that it has several aggresive business plans in place for the next two months, and is thus confident that it will be able to ensure that its performance in the second quarter would be “close to the first quarter.”

[News via IT Week]

It is about time for a status update on Acer’s regional performance. So, here it is:

1. Saudi Arabia: Acer Top in Notebooks
   According to Acer, it now has a 33% market share (based on sales) of Saudi Arabia’s notebook market.
2. Acer Falters in Europe, but Gains in China and the Americas
   Acer’s sales contribution from Europe dropped 10 percentage points in the first quarter, but this fall was compensated by a 2 percentage point rise in China and a 7 percentage point rise in the Americas.

Just a short one here. Acer India recently launched a new toll free customer service number, 1800-11-6677, to help buyers of Acer consumer PCs. Of course, as usual, the service is being outsourced to RT Outsourcing Services - an Indian outsourcing organization.

This addition to Acer’s tele-support service is part of Acer’s drive to widen their customer service network (both tele-support and onsite service) to 175 locations across India by the end of 2006.

Right in the wake of Acer’s recent withdrawal from BenQ’s board is a reduction in its shareholdings in Winstron Corp. - a company formed in 2001 from Acer’s design and manufacturing service unit.

As part of Acer’s efforts to increase its focus on its core business, i.e. IT products, Acer sold $128 million worth of Winstron Global Depositary Receipts (1 GDR = 10 common shares) at $12.76 each. As a result of the transaction, Acer retains only a 16.2% stake in Winstron.

[News via FinanceAsia.com]

Acer recently reported first quarter (Q1) consolidated revenues of NT$83.0 billion (US$2.56 billion) and profit after tax (PAT) of NT$4.0 billion. These values were up 26.3% and 87% on year, respectively.

Consolidated revenues in 2006 is forecasted to touch NT$400 billion, while PAT is expected to reach NT$10 billion this year.

[News via Digitimes]

Acer has announced that it will be marketing Hitachi Data Systems’ (HDS) WMS100 storage area network (SAN) and AMS200 network attached storage (NAS) devices under the Acer brand, primarily packaged with its servers. This move is believed to be a potential sales-booster for its servers, especially in Europe.

As a general guide, the HDS WMS100 is a mid-range Workgroup Modular Storage (WMS) system targeted at small and medium businesses (SMBs), which can be scaled up to more than 50TB (SATA), while the HDS AMS200 is an Adaptable Modular Storage (AMS) system which scales from under 1TB to over 200TB (SATA).