Acer Sees 2011 Mobile PC Market Up 10-12%

Taiwan's Acer Inc, the world's second-largest PC vendor, expects the market for mobile PCs to grow 10-12 percent in 2011, driven by emerging markets, its chief Gianfranco Lanci said.

"The economy is coming back. Consumers are still spending," Lanci told Reuters in an interview. In developed markets PC sales growth halted last Christmas season as consumers continued to use their old computers or bought tablets. Lanci said this was partly due to a paucity of exciting new products from vendors. "In the last 12 to 18 months technological evolution has probably slowed down a bit. A lot of customers have delayed replacements," he said.

Acer has unveiled three new smartphone models and its first three tablets. Having only entered the smartphone industry in 2009, it aims to sell 3-5 million of them this year, compared with just below 1 million in 2010, plus 5-7 million tablets, Lanci said. "Tablets will be big in 2011," Lanci said. "For us tablets are a natural continuation of the PC." While all new models use Google's Android software, Lanci said the firm aimed to start selling its first Windows Phone 7 phone and its first MeeGo tablet around September. "Will we keep all three (operating systems)? I don't think so, but to choose today would be risky, without any real benefit tomorrow," he said.

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Acer's larger rival Nokia picked just one operating system- Microsoft's Windows Phone, a move that Lanci believes could help the industry as boosting Microsoft's system could provide a credible alternative to Android. "More choice is always better," he said.