20% off Inspiron & Studio laptopsAcer says Vista not helping PC sales much
Acer is cutting its sales forecast and it is blaming the shortfall on a smaller-than-expected boost from the release of Windows Vista, Taipei Times reported Friday.
Acer Chairman Wang Jeng-tang on Thursday told shareholders that company revenue for the year "will grow 30 percent to 40 percent compared to last year" and that Vista hadn't affected PC sales as positively as expected. Previously, Acer had expected greater than 40 percent growth. (Standard disclaimer: things often get lost in the translation in media reports from Taiwan, so you may want to take the report with a grain of salt, rather than as gospel.)
Vista was released with much fanfare in January, but it's not clear that the availability of the new operating system has helped PC sales. Though some waited to buy a new PC until after Vista was released, the majority of buyers don't buy a PC because of a particular operating system, according to a report released by In-Stat last month.
With sales greater than $11 billion in 2006, Acer has been a rising star in the PC industry. The Taiwanese company has made great strides in a short amount of time, most recently displacing Lenovo as the world's third-largest PC maker, capturing 6.8 percent of the global PC market, according to market research firm iSuppli.
Erica Ogg is a CNET News staff writer who covers consumer electronics, primarily for Crave. E-mail Erica.
cause the world to rush out and buy PCs to run Vista?
Once the world actually USES a Mac, then you'll see sales increase
more-so... and it won't be PCs.
But then again, what does Microsoft call a beta tester? End User!
vista is craptastic!