Big Vendors Worth Your Notice

Acer's Advance
One thing CRN reporters hear constantly from our solution provider readers is that they're more likely to commit to the vendors that are obviously committing to them. Well, persistence sure is paying off for notebook and display heavyweight Acer America.

Two years ago, the company took a stand, saying it would refuse to sell any of its products direct and adding Ingram Micro to its slate of strategic distribution partners. That move proved prescient. Last month, the Global Technology Distribution Council named Acer as the fastest-growing vendor in U.S. distribution among companies with more than $100 million in sales.

And when Gartner's latest PC share numbers were released earlier this month, Acer's share of the worldwide market continued to expand dramatically, although its U.S. position still is less dominant. Preliminary shipments for the third quarter show Acer in the No. 4 share position, with 3.47 million units shipped, compared with the 4.44 million shipped by the third place vendor, Lenovo. Its growth rate of 33.4 percent far outstripped those of most of its rivals, with the exception of Toshiba, which grew 30.5 percent. (More on Toshiba in a moment.)

Dirk Olsen, director of U.S. commercial channel sales for Acer America, San Jose, Calif., said the company continues to apply lessons learned in overseas markets to it domestic programs. Among key focuses for 2007 will be improving communications with partners. At last count earlier this year, those ranks were pushing 10,000, up from 6,000 just two years ago.