Taiwanese computer manufacturer, Acer Inc., announced strong sales of Google (News - Alert) Inc.’s Chrome platform after Microsoft’s Windows 8 was only modestly received. The company had posted two consecutive annual losses prior, Bloomberg (News - Alert).com reports.
Since their release in November, Chrome-based models have accounted for between 5% and 10% of Acer’s (News - Alert) total US shipments. Acer president, Jim Wong, believes this ration to be long-term sustainable and says that they are considering offering similar Chrome models in other markets as a result.
As tablets and smartphones increase in popularity, the Windows-based computers Acer would have typically relied on are struggling – the company announced a NT$3.5 billion write-off on the value of the Gateway (News - Alert), Packard Bell and eMachines brands it owns – and the company posted a 28% drop in its fourth-quarter shipments last year. An IDC Corp report indicates a 6.4% drop in global computer industry shipments in the fourth quarter of last year, as well, despite Windows 8 launching at that time.
According to Wong, Windows 8 has yet to prove successful and Acer has no plans to release any Windows RT devices before the summer period. The platform is still being evaluated by Acer before it will decide whether to offer a device or not.
After the purchasing of cloud-services provider in iGware Inc. in 2011, Acer is considering to continue to acquire technology companies, despite having no plans to acquire other PC makers. Despite these growth plans, Acer is rated sell by 15 out of 31 polled analysts, with the remaining 15 recommending holding and one rating Acer as buy. Their stock is reported to be down by 4.8% in Taipei, marking 0.4% drop in the Taiex index benchmark.