Taipei/Hong Kong : Acer Inc, the world's No 2 computer vendor, said stronger-than-expected sales of its Google Inc Android phone, named Liquid, have led to shortages of the device.
"Liquid is doing much better than our expectation," Gianfranco Lanci, president of the Taipei-based company, said in an interview on Friday. "This is why we're a little bit short of supply."
The Liquid touch-screen handset, unveiled in October, competes against models from HTC Corp, Samsung Electronics Co and Motorola Inc in the market for phones using the free Android platform. Acer expects its smartphone sales, including those using Microsoft Corp's Windows system, to total between two million and three million units this year, Lanci said.
Acer expects to ship at least 250,000 Liquid handsets by the end of this quarter, compared with initial expectations for 150,000 to 200,000, Lanci said.
Smartphones will account for 10 per cent of Acer's revenue in about three years, a year later than initial company predictions because of last year's global economic slump, the executive said.
Competitive market
"It's a very competitive market and depends a lot on feedback from customers," said Angela Hsiang, who rates the company "outperform" at KGI Securities Co in Taipei.
"If you launch a product and it's successful, that's very positive in helping marketing for the future."
Liquid is manufactured by Taipei-based Compal Communications Inc while Foxconn International Holdings Ltd will make a second Android handset for Acer this quarter, Jim Wong, president of Acer's IT Products division, said on January 22.