As Acer Inc., the third-largest notebook PC brand now, has aggressively launched Netbook PCs and bought out smaller, regional brands to threaten its leading position in the world, HP indeed needs to reinforce cooperation with Hon Hai to take advantage of the latter's cutting-edge production capacity to keep off the mighty rival, according to industry insiders.

 

As Hon Hai and HP used to jointly explore Russia's PC market, they have decided to duplicate the experience in Turkey by building a PC production plant to directly tap PC markets in Europe and the Middle East. Industry insiders said that the move by the two firms will heavily impact Acer and Dell, the second-largest brand, in the markets.

 

Hon Hai scored non-combined revenue of NT$147 trillion in 2008, up 19% from a year earlier. Although failing to keep a 30% revenue growth in the year, Terry Gou, chairman of the firm, claimed that his company will continue to grow this year, despite the global economic recessions. Therefore, closer cooperation with HP is regarded as one of the firm's most savvy strategies for business growth this year.

 

HP has explored the Turkish market for PCs for over 20 years and gained solid ground there. As there still exist strong market potentials in the Middle East and East Europe despite the global recessions, the new cooperation move will help Hon Hai with a business boost.