Acer Inks Deal For Ingram To Distribute Its Notebooks In U.S.

The U.S. arm of the $13 billion Acer Group had a falling out with Ingram several years ago, but has patched up relations with the distributor and entered into the U.S. pact as part of an aggressive assault to increase its share of the notebook market. Ingram already has strong ties with Acer in Europe and other parts of the world. In the United States, Ingram rejoins other Acer distributors, including Tech Data, D&H Distributing and Synnex.

Rudi Schmidleithner, who became president of Acer America in January, said the Ingram agreement is the next step in Acer's bid to increase its notebook market share.

Within the next several quarters, Acer will authorize Ingram for its full product line, including LCD displays and PCs. "We want to make sure we are not trying to do too many things at the same time," Schmidleithner said of the first phase of the Ingram distribution pact.

The Ingram authorization comes after Acer simplified its terms and conditions for resellers, eliminating rebates and spiffs. That has clarified pricing and is a big part of Acer's channel integrity pledge for VARs, Schmidleithner said in a statement. "Our major strategy is clear communication to the market and to make it easier for resellers to access and understand our pricing strategy. We want very simple T's and C's [terms and conditions]."

Since implementing the new pricing strategy, Acer has posted 20 percent growth in month-to-month U.S. sales, Schmidleithner said. That is up from a flat fourth quarter. Acer has managed strong market-share gains in Europe and is looking to replicate that success here, he said.

The company says it is the No. 1 provider of notebook computers across Europe. Acer's 18.6 percent notebook market share in Western Europe during fourth-quarter 2003 represented 135 percent growth against the same quarter in 2002, according to research firm Gartner. Acer claims it is the No. 1 provider of notebooks in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland.

"Acer is looking to Ingram Micro for reach, international reach, as well as tertiary markets, SMB and direct and online marketers," said Paul Bay, vice president of vendor management at Ingram Micro U.S.. "They're interested in engaging with our solution provider communities, including VentureTech [Network], and will tap that well in the near future." Acer is also interested in tapping into Ingram's growing HIPAA initiatives with the Acer Tablet PC, which is being used by doctors and health-care workers, said Bay.

"We look forward to mirroring the success we have enjoyed with Acer in Europe here in the United States," said Bay.