After seeing its revenues from the pan-Asian Pacific (PAP) market surge 13% on year in the first quarter of 2018, Acer expects to score an even higher double-digit growth in revenues from the market in the second quarter. And gaming PCs will continue its role as main growth driver, with their shipments to the region to witness exponential increases in the year after shooting up 240% on year in the first quarter, according to Andrew Hou, Acer's president for PAP.
Acer saw 39% of its revenues for the first quarter 2018 come from the PAP market, exceeding for the first time the ratio of revenues from the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) market, long a main outlet for Acer's PC products, Hou said.
According to GfK, Acer is now the No.1 brand vendor of both notebooks and desktops in Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, and ranks among the top-three bands for both devices in Taiwan, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand. In Malaysia, Acer takes the top spot in notebook sales and No.3 notch in desktop shipments.
In terms of gaming notebooks, Acer now takes the crown in Singapore, Thailand and India, and ranks No. 2 in the Philippines and Hong Kong. For gaming desktops, the company is the No.1 vendor in Singapore and the Philippines, and No. 2 in Thailand, Taiwan and Australia.
Hou said that Acer is well expected to surge to the top spot in the Philippines and Hong Kong in the gaming notebook space in 2018, adding that the company also stands a chance of leaping to the No.1 place for gaming devices in Vietnam, Japan, and Malaysia by the end of the year.
Hou continued that the Acer's gaming PC brand Predator has worked well in giving a boost to its branded slim notebooks, whose market share in PAP already doubled from 6-7% to 13-14% as of the end of the first quarter 2018.
By sponsoring the annual Asia Pacific Predator League gaming competition, Acer has successfully enhanced the popularity and influence of its Predator gaming PCs among young gamers in the region. In its 2018 edition held in January in Jakarta, gaming teams from 15 countries were invited to attend the competition, up from eight countries in 2017. The 2019 event will be held in Thailand, and Acer has already booked an indoor stadium to house over 3,000 gamers, according to Hou.
Besides gaming PCs and slim notebooks for consumer markets, Acer has been actively developing business-use PC sales in the PAP market, with revenue contribution ratio for business PCs in the region already soaring from 39% in 2016 to 41% in 2017 and likely to surge further to 45% in 2018, Hou indicated.
Andrew Hou, Acer president for Pan Asia Pacific
Photo: Aaron Lee, Digitimes, May 2018
Article translated by Willis Ke
