Acer UK sales slashed in HALF in Q3

Notebook giant Acer fell fastest and hardest in a UK market dogged by weak consumer, SME and public sector spending. The vendor saw shipments decline 52 per cent in Q3 as the overall sales in the UK dropped by 11 per cent, with just over 2.8 million units pushed into the channel, according to IDC's quarterly PC tracker. This …

[John Ruddy]

Thats strange, because they had some really good deals, on some really good laptops. I bought one for my wife, and for the £400 it cost, it fairly zings along.

[Dapprman]

There was an articale here a few months back ...

... that the large excess stocks of their laptops were to be dumped on UK and Europe resulting in many deals - I know there were some serious reductions at PCW that would have made one tempting if I were looking for a new laptop (even with their reputation for being less reliable than many of their rivals).

[RichyS]

No shit.

We, you don't think per chance that the reason it was so cheap was due to having a fuck load of inventory that they needed to shift faster than you can say "TouchPad-alike fire sale"?

[Robert E A Harvey]

The penalty of "me too"

You do this "me too" marketing trick, and when the market is busting itself to buy you pick up trade. When the market shrinks you shrink faster than anyone else.

What happened to the uniquely Acer products, that no-one else was offering? Things like the N300 series, still used by service engineers and stores inventory people all over the world. (They still sell a P300, if you can find one)

What about all that talk of pocket projectors? never seen one of those in real life either.

[Cliff Cheetham]

Wow - like you couldn't see that from a mile away

Acer's strategy of driving low prices by producing huge volume before it gets purchase commitment worked well during the good times, but not changing their strategy when faced with shrinking end -user demand was baffling.

In all fairness they're not the only ones who did it - but boy they did it bigger than everyone else. One the bright side - some great deals on laptops until sales pick up !!

every cloud... and all that :-)

In reference to John's quote above, based in his bafflement as to Acer's issues and cheap laptop deals probably qualifies him for Acer's purchasing dept....