Hardware maker reports that net profits doubled Acer Inc. reported on Friday that its first-quarter net profit nearly doubled from a year ago despite strong competition in the PC market from rivals such as Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc.Net profit at the world’s fourth largest PC company rose to $5.23 billion New Taiwan dollars (US$160.9 million), from NT$2.56 billion. Revenue increased 26 percent from last year, to NT$83.0 billion.Competition in the PC industry heated up during the first quarter and should remain cutthroat throughout the year, executives from Acer said. “It’s been bloody fighting for the past three months,” said J.T. Wang, Acer’s chairman, noting the company’s rivals have all stepped up their efforts in Acer’s key market, Europe.But the company noted that only itself and HP gained market share during the first quarter, while Dell and Lenovo Group Ltd. both lost.“Our biggest competition in the U.S. is not Dell, it’s HP,” said Gianfranco Lanci, Acer’s president. HP has stepped up its performance since its new CEO was installed, turning it into a more potent rival. Dell lost market share during the first quarter, according to figures from market researcher Gartner Dataquest, taking 16.5 percent of the global market, down from 16.9 percent in the first quarter a year ago. HP increased its share to 14.9 percent from 13.8 percent, and Acer jumped to 5 percent from 3.9 percent.The Taiwanese PC company also said that Microsoft Corp.’s delay in launching its Vista OS could hurt PC sales in the fourth quarter of this year, since some customers might put off buying new PCs until 2007.Aside from the impact from Vista, Acer executives expect the PC market to grow at a rate just slower than last year. The company said it’s own sales in the U.S. will likely double this year to around US$2 billion, while sales to China should quadruple from a year ago. Technology Industry