Crisis hurts Acer profit

       Acer, the world's No.3 PC brand, barely matched market expectations for its second-quarter results, hit by fast-eroding profit margins in its lowcost netbook PC stronghold.
       The results underscored how Acer's consumer-driven focus is riddled with risks, although it remains relatively better off compared with peers Dell Inc and Lenovo Group, which are suffering due to their reliance on corporate demand.
       Acer leads the pack in the netbook PC segment - one of the brightest spots in the technology sector this year with research firm IDC expecting shipments to jump about 127% this year in a largely steady overall PC market.
       "Honestly, the results are very ordinary and even look like they missed it somewhat," said Vincent Chen, an analyst at Yuanta Securities."The key right now is how they perform in the coming months,especially with Windows 7 coming up."
       Windows 7 is Microsoft's nextgeneration operating system, and the launch of any such software has typically led to a jump in PC sales.
       Acer did not provide any outlook in its statement released after close of trading hours, but it has previously said it expects this year's second-half shipments to jump up to 40% from the first half.
       Acer's net profit fell to NT$2.3 billion (US$70 million) in April-June versus NT$2.9 billion a year ago, hit by the economic crisis as consumers and companies rein in on their spending, and also the lower profits associated with low-cost netbooks.
       A Reuters Estimates poll had expected an average net profit of NT$2.34 billion in the second quarter.
       Revenue also fell, slipping 5% to NT$119 billion as Acer needs to sell as many as six netbook PCs to make the same amount of money as it would from a single regular notebook PC.
       On a shipments basis, Acer was the strongest performer among the world's top five PC brands in the second quarter,with IDC estimating its shipments to have risen nearly 24% from a year ago,stronger than HP and Toshiba Corp.