Acer Timeline Ultraportables Suffer Panel Shortages

Acer has confirmed that a shortage of LCD panels will have an impact on production of their Timeline ultraportable notebook range.  Announced at the start of April, the Acer Timeline range includes 13.3, 14.1 and 15.6-inch models; Acer has not confirmed which size is affected, only that three out of the planned ten will suffer launch delays.

According to Acer chairman JT Wang, those delays will be relatively short, too.  He suggested that the company had already found a new panel supplier, and that the three models impacted will be delayed by roughly eight days. 

Despite the schedule impact, Acer remains confident about their shipments, revenues and profits for the quarter, compared to Q1 2009.  Wang claimed that ultra-thin notebooks would push overall notebook shipments in Q2 up by 35- to 40-percent, versus the previous quarter; he also suggested that Acer would become the largest notebook vendor by 2010.