Acer, ASUS, Duel For Netbook Dominance

Acer recently reported that shipments of its Aspire One could exceed sales of the ASUS Eee PC by all of a million units.

Although ASUS is largely responsible for starting this whole netbook craze, Acer is playing the role of the bigger kid on the block and is poised to steal the show. They recently said that sales of the Aspire One could reach 6 million units, surpassing the Eee PC’s target of 5 million.

A lot of the growth is recent. ASUS predicted its 4th quarter shipments would be between 1.6 and 1.8 million units, right about the same as the 1.7 million it shipped in Q3. Acer, on the other hand, sold 2.4 million units in the last quarter and expect that number to grow in Q4.

Acer is the 3rd largest producer of PCs, behind only Dell and HP. Their revenue is roughly double that of ASUS. Acer’s size has made it easier to launch its product globally, where ASUS has had to build up an infrastructure market by market.

Should be an interesting showdown next year, don’t you think?

Written by Daniel Shain on Saturday, November 1, 2008