Acer to set up mainland R&D center

Nov. 23, 2009 (China Knowledge) - Taiwan-based Acer Inc, the world's third-largest PC brand, will set up a research and development center on mainland China, in a bid to increase its market share, the Commercial Times reported on Friday, citing Acer Chairman Wang Jeng-tang as saying.

The mainland R&D center will focus on the development of desktop computers and smartphones, said Wang.

The company will develop smartphones based on China's home-grown 3G standard, the TD-SCDMA technology, at the proposed R&D center, said the report.

Acer's global PC shipments grew 25.6% year on year to 10.96 million units in the third quarter of this year, and ranked second after PC brand HP, which shipped 15.79 million PCs, according to statistics from research firm Interactive Data Corp, China Knowledge reported earlier.

Wang earlier said Acer would surpass Hewlett-Packard to become the largest player in the global laptop PC market in 2010, with netbook shipments reaching 40 million units.