Acer revised down its forecasts for full-year notebook and tablet PC shipments, saying its products have faced increasing competition from Apple's iPad, while the economic recovery in Europe, its key market, remains slow. Chairman J.T. Wang said at the company's AGM that he expects Acer's total notebook shipments this year to be lower than last year as the company is now focusing on reducing its inventories, Dow Jones reports. That compares with the company's bullish forecast in November of 20-25 percent growth for 2011. Wang also said he expected the firm to ship 2.5-3.0 million tablet PCs this year, down from its previous projection of 5.0-7.0 million. "We expect our inventories in Europe to fall to a normal level by the end of this month and we plan to lower our inventories in the region further in the third quarter," Wang said. "Acer's decline in market share in Europe will stabilize in the second half." He said Acer's inventory adjustments are confined to Europe as its operations in Asia Pacific and the US "remain healthy." Acer expects its notebook PC shipments to continue to fall, or at best remain steady, before recovering in the fourth quarter. Notebook PC shipments in the current quarter will likely fall 10 percent from the first quarter, while shipments in the third quarter will likely be flat or slightly up from the second quarter.
