Taiwan-based PC maker Acer plans to double its presence in mainland China within three years.

Acer will take its current 1600 stores in the mainland to 3000 within three years in a bid to achieve 30 per cent year-on-year growth and to compete with rival China-based Lenovo.

About 400 stores will be opened in China’s smaller cities every year, according to Acer Group VP Scott Lin.

Acer seized 9.5 per cent in Chinese market in the first quarter of 2012, 3.3 per cent higher than 2009, overtaking global competitors HP and Dell. However, Acer is still far beyond from Lenovo which is the mainland’s leading PC maker with a market share of about 35 per cent.

Acer, whose sales revenue last year in China was US$2.3 billion, will focus on new generation ultrabook products in an effort to cater different customer groups.

IT research company IDC Asia-Pacific VP Kitty Fok predicts that ultrabooks shipments will reach 30 million units this year.

“It cannot replace traditional PCs and laptops, but will have a boost because of Microsoft Corp’s new operating system Windows 8,” said Fok.

Acer’s global sales revenue last year was US$15.7 billion.

GB