Acer to ship more netbooks this year than Asus?

Asus may have created the netbook category with the launch of the Eee PC 701 last October. But competitor Acer says it will ship more netbooks this year than Asus. PC World reports that Acer expects to ship nearly 6 million Acer Aspire One netbooks by the end of 2008, while Asus is estimating shipments of about 5 million units.

One key to Acer’s success is clearly the fact that Acer is a larger company with better name recognition among consumers. Up until last year, Asus was best known as a motherboard maker. Which is to say they weren’t particularly well known at all outside of computer geek circles.

Acer has also done a good job of making its netbooks available in retail stores like Best Buy and Circuit City. Asus products are starting to appear in bricks and mortar stores as well, but Acer already had relationships with those retail channels.

Of course, 5 million Eee PC unit shipped is still a pretty impressive feat – especially considering the fact that this market didn’t even exist a bit over a year ago.


Posted on Friday, October 31st, 2008, 11:59 am by Brad
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  • DougC3
    I like to think that Asus's continued tacit denial of any problem at the bottom right-hand corner of their keyboards contriputed to this upset by Acer... but I'm probably over-estimating the ability of the consumer to even notice something like that.

    Whatever the cause, it'll be amazing if Acer's single model with small screen, wide bezel, track-pad-straddling buttons, and smudge-magnet finish outsells all 20 or 30 varied Asus models.

    BTW, I was geeky enough to be proud of the Asus motherboard in the first Windows PC I ever bought, back in 1991 :
  • Hans
    1) Yes, keyboard. The EEE keyboard shift key/arrow keys thing is deplorable.

    2) Walmart has Acer Aspire One's. That's the way to ship 6E6 units.

    Hans
  • DougC3
    Last time I checked, a few weeks ago, Wal-Mart just had them at their website and not in brick & mortar stores, not here at least. They would sell like hotcakes in the stores.
  • $Bill
    Walmart has them here in San Diego, CA. They cost $50 more in the store than if you get it on Walmarts online store though.

    I actually think the price for what you get is why Acer is selling so much. Asus has 20 or 30 different models, but as far as I know, none of them with and Atom cpu sells under $400. Acer has only 3 models with and Atom cpu, and 2 of them sell for $350 or under. I think the Windows versions of the Acer aspire one is a good computer too.
  • Andy Norris
    Asus has the 900HA, which is available with a 160gb hdd for under $350 -- the lowest I've seen was $320. Before that, they had the 901, which had an Atom and an SSD, but I think you're right that it was generally north of $400.

    There's no question that Acer has done a good job at hitting aggressive price points and at getting units into stores, though.

    BTW, I think the whole Eee keyboard thing is completely overblown. Beginners type with 2 fingers anyway, and experienced users ought to know how to remap keys if they don't like them where they are. Still, it would be nicer if they had extended the arrow keys a little below the rest of they keyboard like some vendors do. Oh well.
  • jpconard
    Walmart may have the Acer but at one time they also had the Asus on their site, including the smaller ones. Target has pretty much all the Asus 9" and smaller on their site and many in stores. Every time I've been in my Wal-mart (St. Louis area) there are no netbooks at all. I'll have to check the local Target to see what Asus models are in stock. Not everybody wants a mechanical hard drive and I've heard the Acer SSD (Linux model) is slow. As far as the keyboard the Acer may be a a little better, but not sure about the trackpad buttons. Dell has a strange keyboard as well, so they all have some differences with respect to the keyboards. I think both machines are good and the more that they get them in these stores the better for netbooks in general.
  • rasti
    Dont forget that we are specialists an know a lot of specs. We know that there are a lot of different models in each brand. but the people on the streets are saying" dont buy Asus, is slow an the screen is bad, an does not have hard drive, buy Acer: good screen, good speed, hard drive!!
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