Acer has already adjusted its strategy from purely defending its position in the market in 2011 to attacking the market in 2012 and the company will push four major product segments this year - ultrabook, notebook, tablet PC and smartphone, Acer chairman JT Wang stated at the company's ceremony for the Lunar New Year.

Among the four major segments, Acer will be most aggressive about ultrabooks and is set to launch four new models in the second quarter and in the third quarter, Acer plans to launch models with a price of US$699-799.

For the future, Acer president Jim Wong pointed out that the company will adopt a passive strategy over pricing and will no longer compete through price with user experience and demand to become the new the major selling points.

As for the tablet PC market, Wang believes that the high-end and low-end segments are being dominated by Apple and Amazon, respectively and Acer will focus on the US$299-499 mid-range price market, a segment with estimated shipment scale of about 10-20 million units.

As for netbooks, although developed countries are believed to start turning their interests to ultrabook, since the model's shipment volume in the emerging countries will continue to grow, Acer will be able to maintain its 45% worldwide market share, noted Wong adding that netbook and ultrabook will be merged into one segment within the next 18-24 months.

JT Wang, Acer chairman

Photo: Aaron Lee, Digitimes, Jaunary 2012