AA1 sales better than all Asus Netbooks for Q3 2008

Linky below.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/12/08/acer_vs_asus_q3_netbook_market/

 

I think that there are a couple of reasons for this, but it all boils down to how the machines are marketed.

1) Asus has too many confusing models that compete with each other. There is constant discussion on the Asus boards about which one is the best. The "best" models are too expensive and not carried by local stores though, so people end up putting off the decision to buy. A novice to the market really has to spend a couple days reading and researching the various models.

2) Local stores that do carry the Asus machines in the US, such as Best Buy and Target are allowed to sell some stripped down models made just for them that are undesirable (Celeron processor instead of Atom, slow SDD). Because they carry these models, they don't carry any of the "best" models mentioned above, and this hurts sales.

3) Acer, on the other hand, only has a few choices, so that even though the stores such as Wal Mart misunderstand the market (Walmart seems to think that this is a computer for kids because it is small, for example) they still carry the decent model with the hard drive.

 

The must read data will be the Q4 results, though.

During most of Q3 the AA1 was selling at a much lower price than any of the direct competition, with reasonably good distribution worldwide. Acer was aggressively out to gain market share, and it succeeded. The Aspire One team are certainly up for a fat holiday bonus!

Q4 and beyond, the price of competing netbooks have largely fallen to match, and there are a number of compelling models to choose from from top tier brands like Dell, Lenovo and hp. The AA1 is much less an obvious choice now than it was a couple of months ago, though various small updates have kept it in the top bracket. Acer must be hoping that enough Aspires got shipped out to happy owners that word of mouth keeps the popularity up. While Asus is doing reasonably well with the 900A, 901, 1000 and S10 models these days, I imagine they are a lot more worried than Acer right about now. Squandering the Eee brand is surely the top IT marketing blunder of 2008. Not fat holiday bonus for you guys!