Acer expects to meet its target of shipping 250,000 to 300,000 ultrabooks in the fourth quarter, it said Wednesday, after struggling with declining PC sales this past year.
Acer president Jim Wong made the statement in a Taipei media briefing, according to company spokeswoman Stella Chou. During the briefing, Wong also said that ultrabook pricing will be at US$799 to $899 next year, but that in 2013, pricing could fall to $499.
Ultrabooks, a new category of laptops, are built to be thin and light and resemble Apple’s MacBook Air family of notebooks. Intel first announced the ultrabook category to help bring back consumer interest in laptops amid the growing popularity of tablets brought on by Apple’s iPad.
In October, Acer began shipping its Aspire S3 ultrabook starting at $899. The device has a 13.3 inch screen, weighs 1.35 kilograms, and uses an Intel Core i5 processor.
Acer’s president also said the company expects to break even in the fourth quarter. The PC maker has posted a loss for the last two quarters, with revenue in the third quarter falling 30 per cent year-over-year.
Acer was formerly the world’s third largest PC maker, but fell to fourth place after being overtaken by Lenovo earlier this year, according to research firm IDC. Analysts have said weak spending because of the economic conditions along with the rise in tablets have slowed growth in the PC market.
