As PC brand vendors' hard disc drive (HDD) inventory level will soon hit bottom, vendors will start experiencing HDD shortages in December and the problem will reach its peak in February until recovery comes in March, according to Acer vice president Scott Lin.

Despite PC brand vendors having already taken measures to secure and expand supply sources right after Thailand's flood, sources from the upstream supply chain still estimate that the hard drive supply gap will reach 35% in the fourth quarter with PC vendors starting feeling the pressure in December.

Acer pointed out that all the newly-made notebook models will have price increases of 2-3%, in addition to the extra cost of HDD, the increased price will also cover the extra cost for adopting Intel's new CPUs such as Core i3 2330, 2430 and Core i5 2450.

As for previous notebook models, Lin pointed out that the company is only raising prices to reflect the increasing cost and will not raise the price of the older models. In addition to Acer, Dell and Asustek Computer is also reportedly considering raising its notebook prices.

For the ultrabook, since the HDD of Acer's Aspire S3 ultrabook is produced in Shenzhen, China, Acer will not raise the price of its ultrabook, noted Lin, while adding that Acer's ultrabook sales already reached 100,000 units each month and should be able to reach the company's goal for 2011. In 2012, Acer is also set to add an 11.6-inch model into the product line to compete against Apple and Asustek.

Acer originally expected its notebook shipments in the fourth quarter would rise slightly on quarter, but be affected by the HDD shortage, Acer has adjusted the forecast to a sequential drop of 5-10%, Lin noted.

Source:digitimes