Acer is set to reorganize its sub-brands with its Gateway and Packard Bell brands to be used for mid-range and entry-level products, while its eMachines brand will be eliminated, according to company chairman JT Wang.
Wang pointed out that in the past, 80-90% of Acer's shipments were entry-level models with only a small percentage of mid-range and high-end products, but now the company's high-end models already account for 5-6% of its shipments, and mid-range models around 10%. In the next 2-3 years, Acer is set to bring its high-end proportion to above 10%, mid-range products to 30% and entry-level products below 60%, Wang added.
In the future, Packard Bell will mainly be pushed in the Europe market, while Gateway will be pushed in other regions.
Wang also noted that convertible notebooks will bring new opportunities to the company and expects convertible notebooks and tablets will together account for 50% of Acer's product shipments in the future.
Acer maintains its previous forecast of seeing 0-5% sequential growth in PC shipments in the second quarter, but the growth percentage will be more close to the bottom margin, said Wang, adding that the company's shipment ratio for the first and second halves of 2013 should reach 45:55.
As for the smartphone business, Acer has already given up the strategy of launching a lot models in a short period of time and turned to focus on just flagship models. The company is also taking a cautious attitude over expanding its cooperation with telecom carriers and is currently partnering with two carriers in Eastern Europe to sell its products.
Company president Jim Wong pointed out that Acer, in the past, launched up to 20 smartphones each year, but only saw sales of 400,000 units; however, in 2013, with only two flagship smartphones, one in the first half and one in the second half, the company is already guaranteed to ship one million units and may even hit as high as 1.5 million. If the company successfully achieves 1.5 million units, Acer will have a great chance of reaching its goal of shipping five million smartphones in 2014 and grabbing a 0.1% share in the smartphone market.
Acer to reorganize its sub-brands
Photo: Michael Lee, Digitimes, June 2013
Article translated by Joseph Tsai
