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Acer slashing tablet shipment target by about 60% for 2011

June 15, 2011 | 11:40 am

Acer is cutting its tablet computer shipment target for 2011 by about 60%, after months of its slate-like devices failing to take off with consumers as the company had originally projected, according to a report.

The Taiwanese company, which is the second largest PC maker behind Hewlett-Packard, is also trimming its projected notebook shipments worldwide in an effort to "clear accumulated inventory," according to a Reuters report.

J.T. Wang, Acer's chairman, said at a shareholders meeting in Taipei on Wednesday that despite the company missing its last three quarterly forecasts, overall computer shipments were expected to pick up in the third and fourth quarter of 2011, Reuters reported.

"Wang told reporters after the meeting that the new target for tablet shipments this year was 2.5-3 million units, much lower than the 5-7 million units target set at the beginning of the year," the report said. "Acer said it expected to sell 800,000 tablets in each of the second and third quarters."

In March, Acer's former Chief Executive Gianfranco Lanci left the company after disagreeing on how to approach the tablet market, Reuters said. In May, Acer reported a 29.2% drop in total computer sales, the report said