In the early morning of March 20, Beijing time, Acer predicted that the sales of tablet computers in the current fiscal quarter will be 2.9 times higher than that in the previous fiscal quarter, but the sales of desktop computers and laptops are expected to decline by 10% to 15%. Acer is the world's fourth largest PC manufacturer by sales. However, analysts are skeptical, saying Acer won't return to profitability until the third quarter because it doesn't plan to launch new products in the first half of the year.
Vincent Chen, an analyst at Yuanda securities in Taiwan, expects Acer to have net losses in both the first and second quarters due to higher operating expenses, declining notebook sales and low profit margins on low-cost tablets.
Acer president Weng Jianren said earlier this month that the company's goal this year is to increase tablet sales by 3.5 times to nearly 10 million units, and to double its marketing spending to account for 1.5% of total spending. Acer will mainly launch new products in the second half of the year, he added. Acer had a net loss of NT $3.37 billion (US $110 million) in the last quarter and a net profit of NT $100 million (US $3.4 million) in the same period last year, according to the financial report released on Tuesday. According to a Reuters survey, on average, 10 analysts expect Acer to have a net loss of NT $2.99 billion (about US $100 million) in the last quarter. In 2012, Acer had a net loss of NT $2.91 billion (about US $98 million) and a net loss of NT $6.6 billion (about US $220 million) in 2011.