Taiwan-based notebook vendors Acer and Asustek Computer will keep a close watch on the move of Samsung Electronics after the Korea-based company revealed that it aims to ship 18 million notebooks in 2011.

Samsung aims to raise its global notebook shipments by 80% to 18 million units in 2011, Kevin Lee, a vice president at Suwon, an information-technology solutions subsidiary of Samsung, said in an interview with Bloomberg recently.

The shipment target will raise Samsung's share in the global notebook market to 6-7% in 2011 compared to 5% in 2010, Lee said.

Samsung shipped 2.94 million notebooks in the four quarter of 2010, bringing total shipments for the year to 9.91 million units, according to IDC data.

Samsung's goal of 80% growth is aggressive compared to a 10-15% growth projected for the global notebook market this year, said sources at Taiwan-based notebook makers.

Executives at Acer have mentioned on several occasions that Samsung will be one of its strong contenders and therefore, Acer will deal properly in the purchase of flat panels, memory parts and other components. Asustek is also expected to take similar countermeasures against Samsung's marketing efforts, said the sources.

Consumer and ultra-thin models and netbooks are Samsung's major notebook product lineups, with their specifications similar to those models offered by Acer and Asustek, said the sources, noting that Samsung as well as Acer and Asustek have all targeted the same markets, especially in Europe and China.

Suppliers of notebook parts and components have noticed increasing purchases from Samsung since the fourth quarter of 2010 as Samsung is still required to buy some parts such as chassis and keyboards from Taiwan makers although it has sufficient in-house production for the most other parts and components, the sources said.

Samsung took the seventh position in the global notebook vendors' ranking in 2010, trailing Hewlett-Packard (HP), Acer, Dell, Toshiba, Lenovo and Asustek.