Taiwan-based ACER Inc. continued it's rapid growth trend, reporting impressive earnings late Friday.
The company which employs a somewhat unique direct-to-retailer, minimal advertising marketing model (as well as demonstrating continued reliable quality control), has been top-4 player in the global laptop market alongside Dell, HP and Apple for much of 2008.
Friday's report of 4% growth in net profit, while disappointing some analysts, was still impressive as the company concentrated on providing feature-rich products while maintaining some of the best price points in the field, and during a period when laptop sales caught up with desktops for the first time ever.
Many ACER models appearing in the US were initially supported only by Acer-Europe's website, with the US website still 'playing catch-up'. The company has been agggressive in issuing regular updates for Microsoft Windows Vista and Vista SP1 drivers as well as BIOS updates at the Acer Euro Site.
ACER trades on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and closed up 6.98 per cent at the end of trading Friday.