Acer, Wistron to cooperate to set up notebook factory in Brazil, say Taiwan makers

Aaron Lee, Taipei; Adam Hwang, DIGITIMES [Thursday 20 December 2012]

Acer an Wistron will cooperate to establish a factory in Brazil to assemble 14-inch notebooks, with Wistron to operate the factory and volume production to begin in May 2013, according to notebook supply chain makers. However, both Acer and Wistron declined to comment.

Samsung Electronics was the largest notebook vendor in the Brazil market in the third quarter of 2012 with sales of 440,000 units, followed by Acer with 317,000 units, Brazil-based Positivo with 276,000 units, Hewlett-Packard with 186,000 units, Dell with 147,000 units and Asustek Computer with 88,000 units, the sources cited IDC statistics as indicating. Through setting up the factory, Acer stands a chance of surpassing Samsung to reach the largest notebook market share in Brazil, the sources said.

PC penetration in Brazil is forecast to grow from 30% to 66% over the next three years, with sales of 140 million PCs in 2014, the sources noted. In the Brazil market, 14-inch is the mainstream screen size for notebooks, the sources indicated.

While Samsung has established in-house notebook assembly lines in Brazil, Quanta Computer, Compal Electronics and Foxconn Electronics as well as Lenovo have set up factories there, the sources noted.