8th in the world

With sales of 900,000 units, Acer of Taiwan ranked as the world's eight largest notebook PC brand in 2000. Acer estimates its notebook PC sales will have the opportunity to reach 1.5 million pieces this year, executives of the company announced. While desktop PCs sold sluggishly in 2000, the notebook size still fared well globally. IDC statistics tell that sales of notebook PCs grew by 21.5% in the world market in 2000, compared with 28.4% in 1999. In ranking, Toshiba remained as the world's biggest in the notebook category in 2000, followed by IBM, Dell, and Fujitsum/Siemens. Acer obtained its rank 8 last year by beating Apple. IDC statistics also show that notebook PC sales totaled 26 million units in the world market 2000. Acer concentrated its sales on Europe and Asia-Pacific with 40% of the total, followed by the U.S. with 15% and Latin America with 5% as biggest customers.