Taiwan"s Acer Incorporated has announced a 40.8% increase in net profit for the quarter ending in March. In the three month period, Acer registered a net profit of 5.66 billion Taiwan dollars (170 million US), compared with 4.02 billion dollars a year earlier. Acer, which claims to have replaced China"s Lenovo Group as the world"s third largest PC vendor, posted $99.51 billion in sales in the quarter, up from $83.00 billion a year ago.
According to information and technology research and advisory firm Gartner Dataquest, Acer"s PC market share in the first quarter stood at 6.8% compared to Lenovo"s 6.3%. Of Acer"s first-quarter sales, notebook computers accounted for 62%, followed by desktop PCs at 17% and displays at 16%. Other products, including servers, projectors and IA (information appliance) devices took the remaining five percent. Company chairman and chief executive officer JT Wang said that looking ahead, Acer is optimistic about the PC market over the remainder of the year.