Acer’s North American market

Acer’s North American market share has slipped over the past few years, while in contrast, the company’s European market share has risen. [8] In the mid-2000s years, consumer notebooks have been almost the sole growth drivers for the PC industry, and Acer’s exceptionally low overheads and dedication to the channel had made it one of the main beneficiaries of this trend. [9] Acer grew quickly in Europe in part by embracing the use of more traditional distribution channels targeting retail consumers when some rivals were pursuing online sales and business customers.
In 2007 Acer bought Gateway in the USA and Packard Bell in Europe and became the Number 3 world provider of computers and number 2 for notebooks, and achieved significant improvement in profitability. Acer has been striving to become the world`s largest PC vendor, in the belief that the goal can help it achieve economy of scale and garner higher margin. [10] But such a reliance on the high-volume, low-value PC market made Acer exposed when buying habits changed. On June 2011 Acer re-evaluated its inventory-management strategy in light of worsening economic conditions in Europe, clarifying a large write-down.
Acer said the main reason for the disputes was “high inventory” carried by distributors of its products, reflecting an “inappropriate strategy” in its European operations under the current market situation. In a written response to questions from The Wall Street Journal, Acer said “Southern Europe’s economic situation has been worsening since last year” and the stagnant technology market, particularly in Spain, “influenced Acer’s PC sales”. Acer discovered the problems through a routine audit, it added