Emanuele Accolla

Sales have also got off to a good start in the first quarter of 2006 with PC sales up by 66% to 133,012 units, and notebook sales surging again by 96% to 84,828.

'We have adopted a simple business model. It is often the simplest things that work best,' explains this Italian graduate of the Rome Polytechnic whose career blossomed after joining Texas Instruments in Italy in 1973 and went on to found his own IT company before joining Acer in 1998 as Managing Director for Italy.

'We have concentrated on two things: customer needs and customer service; the start and the end of the process. The manufacturing and distribution is through our partners.

'This gives us a very low cost operational structure with low overheads, and the challenge is to manage the partner channels to market. We have an excellent supply chain at less than 55 days.

'So we concentrate on finding the right products to suit the needs of our customers and providing better customer service. For example, we have been very active in developing software that allows people to change their computer settings quickly with three clicks to avoid embarrassing set-up delays.'

Such attention to customer requirements has helped Acer achieve an enviable $4.5 million in revenue per employee in the region. Profit margins have been squeezed by 14% to 10% over the past three years but surging revenues have more than compensated for the tighter market.

In the notebook PC market Acer retained its number one position in the region in 2005 and looks set to do so again in 2006, judging from the latest IDC data. But which is the fastest growing segment of this market?

'Consumers and small and medium business are the mainstay of demand,' says Mr. Accolla. 'It is a question of affordability and the cheapness of the Internet, and not large projects like five years ago. In Saudi Arabia there has also been the 'computer for everyone initiative' of which we have been a part, and the expansion of the education sector.

'We will carry on introducing new products in all categories, but the Dual Centrino notebooks that we have just launched will continue to be a major line for the next year. We are also happy with the sales of our new PDAs and LCD TVs are will stay in these markets.

'This is certainly one of Acer's fastest growing markets, although achieving sales of $1 billion in the US represented a bigger leap forward in 2005 and China is probably growing faster for us. It is all a matter of transferring greater efficiency into lower cost, better service to the consumer and offering a competitive product.'