'Acer will become Nokia in the netbook market'

Market research firm DisplayBank forecast that Acer will accelerate this year to outstrip Asus in the netbook market and be compared with Nokia in the mobile phone market.

Acer's position in the netbook market this year is likened to Nokia in the mobile phone market.Photo: Notebookcheck.

According to DisplayBank statistics, there were 14.65 million netbooks shipped in 2008, including 5.45 million of Acer Aspire One, 4.85 million of Asus Eee PC. In 2009, DisplayBank forecast Acer netbook sales of 11.3 million units, while Asus sold only 6.45 million units. Thus, Acer's annual sales growth rate will reach 107.3%, while Asus's is only 33%.

If DisplayBank's forecast comes true, the market share of Acer's netbooks will be 42.9%, while the corresponding figure of Asus is less than 25%. The next rankings will be HP, MSI and Dell, with market shares of 6.9%, 4.2% and 3.6% respectively. In other words, Acer will become a Nokia in the netbook market this year.