Acer Q1 profit falls by 72%

Taiwanese PC maker Acer’s first-quarter net profit dropped 72.1 percent year-on-year, while revenue slumped 11.4 percent.

Profit for the quarter reached NT$331 million (US$1.2 million), down from NT$1.18 billion a year earlier. Revenue totalled NT$113 billion, down from NT$128 billion a year earlier.

Last year, during the second and third quarter, the company posted losses, only to finally regain some positive earnings at the end of the year, by reporting a slim US$2.4 million profit.

Acer, the world’s fourth largest PC maker, saw its PC shipments for the year 2011 fall by 13.8 percent compared to a year earlier, according to research firm IDC. This was the largest drop among the world’s top five PC vendors.

But the company said preliminary figures received from another research firm, Gartner, indicated its market share had picked up slightly in the first quarter, to 10.9 percent from 10.1 percent in the previous quarter.

Acer has sought to rebound financially by releasing better performing laptops known as ultrabooks, which are built to be thinner and feature faster turn-on times like a tablet. Earlier this year, company CEO J.T. Wang said ultrabook pricing would fall to $600 to $700 and make up more than 35 percent of the company’s notebook sales by year’s end.

Acer is also releasing more tablets, and has noted a growing demand for such devices in the $299 to $499 price range. The company launched its first quad-core processor tablet called the Iconia Tab A510, which is now listed out-of-stock on Acer’s U.S. online store.