Acer: Surge In Tablet Sales, PCs Decline In Q1

04.10.2013 By Adrian Seceleanu

The PC and tablet sales of the local subsidiary of Acer went down 2% in the first quarter, as the 30% higher deliveries of tablets partially offset the PC decline, Acer Romania sales manager Bogdan Iftemie told ZF.

“The sell-out type of deliveries (from distributors to dealers) in the first quarter are 2% below last year, which is clearly a decline. The figure is valid for the entire mobile segment, tablets included. Speaking about tablets only, we saw 30% growth and could have probably done better, if we had larger inventories, especially of Android devices for the consumer segment,” Iftemie said. “Tablets are gaining a lot of ground and PCs are losing on the consumer segment.”

Sales of tablets surged in Romania to about 200,000 units last year from some 40,000 in 2011 and are expected to reach 300,000 units in 2013.

Portable computer sales amounted to some 540,000 units last year. Adding desktop computers and servers, sales stood at more than 700,000 units. Top laptop vendors in 2012 were Acer, Asus, HP and Lenovo, according to the data obtained by ZF.

The Acer official says the trend is not only visible in reports but everywhere, in restaurants or on the street, where tablets seem to have become a gadget used even by people are not so young any more.

“Consumers who are interested in ease of use and affordable price will buy a tablet over a laptop and a photo camera.”

(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)