The world’s largest netbook manufacturer, Acer, has just presented its forecasts for its own second quarter, as well as the rest of the year, and it is very positive about the netbook market and its own part in that market. In line with IDC predictions, the company predicts a 100 growth in 2009 for the netbook market, and predicts its own notebook and netbook shipments to rise with 35-40% this quarter.
Acer chairman J.T. Wang said that 100% growth in the netbook market over 2009 should not be a problem. Aer knows a thing or two about netbooks, as its Aspire One machine has become a massive success, pushing Asus’ Eee line from the top spot. Thanks to its Aspire One line, Acer saw its overall market share grow 3 percentage points last year.
In the current quarter, which is still underway for Acer, the company expects a growth in its overall shipments of about 25-30%. This growth solely consists of notebook sales, as they are expected to rise by 35-40%, whereas desktop PC shipments are expected to drop 5-10%.
Acer will try to further cement its strong position by releasing a number of laptops based on Intel’s CULV chips, which are positioned to fill the gap between normal notebook chips and the Atom line of processors used in most netbooks. Acer will be the first manufacturer to ship these new intel chips. They are expected to be launched today.
Funny how just after I finished this item, I needed to contact Acer for them to repair/replace my broken power supply for my Aspire One.
– Their phone system is broken. After walking through the menu, I always get dumped back to the beginning, or nothing happens at all.
– Their online report system is not available for Dutch customers.
I’ll have to demand from the shop where I bought it that they take care of it; they are legally obliged to. Crock of shit, as that’s a 16km drive. And back. And it’s raining like ass.
That sucks.
But a ~20mile round trip drive isn’t that bad ;P
Beats the 68 mi (109 km) drive I had to replace my first AA1. It’s too bad these units are so fragile – when they work, they’re really quite nice
Somebody call me? Oh, no, wait…
…95%+ of them will ship with Windows.
Yeah… unfortunately. I’ll wait until there’s a good Linux-based version; or better yet, one of the ARM netbooks, which will basically guarantee Windows will be kept out. Along with various other positives, such as a cooler-running processor, no fans (complete silence!), a thinner case, and longer battery power. The fact that it can’t run Windows without emulation (not practical on a machine of such low specs) or a port of the entire OS and the thousands of third-party applications that run on it is just a bonus to me.
If Acer released an ARM version of their Aspire One, I’d get it ASAP; I like the design as is. It’d be even better knowing that I’m supporting free/open source software instead of throwing even more money, yet again, Microsoft’s way for the… let’s see, sixth or seventh time? And that’s not counting the various machines my mom and sister got, which typically get ripped apart by malicious software real quick. (My sister’s current computer is currently unusable, and she’s pretty much given up on it.)
well, it certainly won’t be fast, but it can be very practical. i did run windows on an imac g3 233mhz so that i could access my telephone system. felt like one of the first pentium pcs, but did the trick. some times, you just need to run this very special old pos-program under windows.
I am waiting on LG’s sunlight readable lcds to come out. whats the point in portablity if you are stuck inside.
I won’t be buying a netbook until multicore Arm processor become available with it. I think that’s 2010 though. But for now I’m waiting for the release of the openPandora handheld which is a netbook in itself.
yeah, i still might get a pandora. its soo sweet.
If the Touchbook from Always Innovating fits my needs I will buy it.
http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/touchbook/
Looks nice, energy efficient ARM, Will possible be able to run Ubuntu ARM or atleast Debian somewhere in the future.
Sounds like it might be for me.
I was down the road looking at the Netbook and wondering that if we are going to start seeing 10 and 12 inch Netbooks – isn’t there basically going to get to a point where it’ll start cannibalising the portable market? I’m not complaining but it’ll be also interesting to see whether Apple jumps into the NetBook market with a 10inch touch screen based device.
Interesting times also ahead with the Atom given that we might see some of the ideas filter back into the high end products – we might actually start to see compiler writers put some effort into their code generators to produce clean code that runs nicely on In-Order based processors like the Atom.
Contacting Acer support sucks.
Once you get trough that it’s better.
We have a batch of 20 monitors all of which broke down
(power supply board replaced) Sometimes it take a month to get the UPS labels from them to send the stuff in for repair, after that it usually back within a week.
The standard reply on a web-request is that you have to call them on a expensive number. The menu takes forever to walk through the sound quality is awful when you finally get someone on the line they drop the phone down.
NEVER AGAIN AN ACER.
Edited 2009-04-09 10:08 UTC
The only thing wrong with the Aspire One, which is also wrong with most notebooks, is the super reflective screen.
I don’t know if anyone has told the manufacturers this, but the whole point of a battery-powered computer is that you can use it in places where there’s no mains power point; that is, usually OUTSIDE.
I don’t care about the improved contrast; the contrast doesn’t matter if you can’t see anything on the screen except your own face!
yes I hate the reflective screen with ALL laptops.
Except for the late 1980s when Acer were selling monitors, I’ve never considering their products because of their repair record.
I know that they sell a lot, but they also have a lot of warranty repairs, even in Asia. It seems as though they’re worse than eMachines and Gateway combined, as they had somehow become more reliable prior to acquisition.
I think that their service centres must be gearing up every time they launch a new product. Would an extra 2 % in price be so bad if their reliability improved greatly?
I’d like to buy a netbook, but Asus is the brand I’d first consider.