Apple's iTunes advantage keeps Acer from building iPad challenger
Citing the strength of iTunes and the App Store, the president of PC maker Acer said his company does not have plans to launch a touchscreen tablet to compete with the Apple iPad.
Acer Taiwan President Scott Lin said Acer could technically create such a device, but it does not fit into the company's business model, according to DigiTimes. The strength of the iPad, Lin said, will lie in its connectivity to iTunes and the App Store, which now offers more than 140,000 software choices.
"Historically, closed platforms are typically limited in terms of scale and are confined to niche markets," the report said. "Apple has built is business out of carving its own niche, which means that while Apple could see success with devices like the iPad, other players are unlikely to be able to replicate its result simply by copying, Lin noted."
Apple plans to expand its online stores with the new iPad iBookstore. As part of the iBooks application, it will allow instant download of best-selling titles from major publishers that can be read on the iPad. The iBookstore will be in addition to the App Store and the iTunes Music Store.
While Acer has no experience in building an online store, and has no plans to get into that market, the company plans to continue to build thinner and lighter notebooks. Lin said his company he does not see the laptop market segment being impacted by Apple's iPad, even with its $499 starting price point.
Lin said Acer expects traditional, full-size notebooks to account for 50 percent to 60 percent of its sales in the coming year, while ultra-thin notebooks will take between 20 percent and 30 percent. Low-cost, low-power netbooks are forecast to represent about 20 percent of Acer's business.
In the fourth quarter of 2009, Acer was the second-largest PC maker in the world, capturing 12.5 percent of global sales. In the u.S., Acer was the third-largest PC manufacturer. Its 11.9 percent domestic share put it ahead of fifth-place Apple, which had 7.4 percent.
In another report, DigiTimes said computer maker MSI has an iPad competitor known as the mPad, based on the Google Android mobile operating system. That touchscreen tablet device, based on the nVidia Tegra chip, will see mass shipments "as soon as the market demands it," MSI Chairman Joseph Hsu said. The company also plans to shelve its development of e-book readers.
Acer Taiwan President Scott Lin said Acer could technically create such a device, but it does not fit into the company's business model, according to DigiTimes. The strength of the iPad, Lin said, will lie in its connectivity to iTunes and the App Store, which now offers more than 140,000 software choices.
"Historically, closed platforms are typically limited in terms of scale and are confined to niche markets," the report said. "Apple has built is business out of carving its own niche, which means that while Apple could see success with devices like the iPad, other players are unlikely to be able to replicate its result simply by copying, Lin noted."
Apple plans to expand its online stores with the new iPad iBookstore. As part of the iBooks application, it will allow instant download of best-selling titles from major publishers that can be read on the iPad. The iBookstore will be in addition to the App Store and the iTunes Music Store.
While Acer has no experience in building an online store, and has no plans to get into that market, the company plans to continue to build thinner and lighter notebooks. Lin said his company he does not see the laptop market segment being impacted by Apple's iPad, even with its $499 starting price point.
Lin said Acer expects traditional, full-size notebooks to account for 50 percent to 60 percent of its sales in the coming year, while ultra-thin notebooks will take between 20 percent and 30 percent. Low-cost, low-power netbooks are forecast to represent about 20 percent of Acer's business.
In the fourth quarter of 2009, Acer was the second-largest PC maker in the world, capturing 12.5 percent of global sales. In the u.S., Acer was the third-largest PC manufacturer. Its 11.9 percent domestic share put it ahead of fifth-place Apple, which had 7.4 percent.
In another report, DigiTimes said computer maker MSI has an iPad competitor known as the mPad, based on the Google Android mobile operating system. That touchscreen tablet device, based on the nVidia Tegra chip, will see mass shipments "as soon as the market demands it," MSI Chairman Joseph Hsu said. The company also plans to shelve its development of e-book readers.
Comments
Acer builds junk. It's as if they get their ideas for body design from a landfill and then festoon their notebooks with blue lights as a distraction.
What were they going to do? Add another generic touchscreen tablet running some full version of Windows to the pile?
Jeez . . .
Is Acer the first of many hardware vendors and service providers who will "blink" and decide to not compete or stop competing with Apple, iTunes and the iPad? Looks like Amazon has also blinked, in agreeing to let books publishers set their own ebook pricing due to the iPad.
Acer?? Really?? LOL
Acer builds junk. It's as if they get their ideas for body design from a landfill and then festoon their notebooks with blue lights as a distraction.
What were they going to do? Add another generic touchscreen tablet running some "full" version of Windows to the pile?
Jeez . . .
fixed
No, I think "awful" was the word he was groping for.
Much better to have a closed system that restricts your online digital purchases to one store that attaches a premium to its pricing, and then settle for a 16 GB of space, because as we know 16GB is all the space you need if you want to follow the suggestion and use it for watching films on.
In another report, DigiTimes said computer maker MSI has an iPad competitor known as the mPad*, based on the Google Android mobile operating system. That touchscreen tablet device, based on the nVidia Tegra chip, will see mass shipments "as soon as the market demands it," MSI Chairman Joseph Hsu said. The company also plans to shelve its development of e-book readers.
Obviously, one company was on the ball. Did anybody check out the mPad*?
Perhaps we should check out MSI to see what the next creation by Apple will look like the next time.
http://www.digitimes.com/NewsShow/Ne...73&query=APPLE
The story will be very similar to the iPhone.
Perhaps we should check out MSI to see what the next creation by Apple will look like the next time.
From http://www.thefirstreporter.com/tech...#axzz0eIGYbduY
"MSI?s prototype was unveiled at CES 2010 which featured Nvidia?s Tegra line of ARM system-on-chip processor packages loaded with 1 Ghz dual-core ARM Cortex A9 MPCore processor making the device to multitask and play videos at 1080p on the Android platform."
Android, 1080p, better screen proportions, dual core processor, multitasking, open access to codecs and formats.
It seems to solve most of the problem designed into the iPad. Sweet.
I agree, Acer would come our with some crap running full Windows 7 that would be open and let you install what you want. It's hard drive would also be rubbish and feature things 250 GB hard drive like their netbooks.
Much better to have a closed system that restricts your online digital purchases to one store that attaches a premium to its pricing, and then settle for a 16 GB of space, because as we know 16GB is all the space you need if you want to follow the suggestion and use it for watching films on.
Apple will of course offer a wonderful paid solution to the low storage issue with their MobileMe and AT&T per month charges. Then when your eyes get sore reading e-books and watching movies for long hours on the iPad there are $30-$40 third party anti-glare/reflection films that you can buy and apply, rinse and repeat every few months as they yellow, peal at the edges and collect dirt.
But despite all those wonderful things there will no option to rent all books for under $6, which would have people running to Apple Store and handing over the cash. :P
lol
@pmz:
No, I think "awful" was the word he was groping for.
No, the word he was looking for was "fool"
LOL is all i can say about Acer
actually I will give them a small bit of props here. They are showing some brains with this whole thing. They could do something but the only reason would be to wage war on Apple's ipad. NOT because it fits with what they want to do as a company. It would be akin to Apple slamming out a $200 netbook 2 years ago 'because everyone else has one'.
Acer knows that they would lose based on name/brand alone so why break out of their game plan to make something just cause
Someday we will all be running our whole lives through iTunes.
Who is 'we"?
The rest of us like choice.
From http://www.thefirstreporter.com/tech...#axzz0eIGYbduY
"MSI?s prototype was unveiled at CES 2010 which featured Nvidia?s Tegra line of ARM system-on-chip processor packages loaded with 1 Ghz dual-core ARM Cortex A9 MPCore processor making the device to multitask and play videos at 1080p on the Android platform."
Android, 1080p, better screen proportions, dual core processor, multitasking, open access to codecs and formats.
It seems to solve most of the problem designed into the iPad. Sweet.
You are in for Future Shock. And like Joseph Hsu, you will wait. Unlike you, he will know why.
http://speirs.org/blog/2010/1/29/future-shock.html
At least ACER gets it, they understand why Apple dominated in the market... again other will try, waste billions of dollars trying to compete and fail.... It is going to be another ipod situation all over again.
Agreed. Unlike their competition, Apple doesn't just sell hardware or software. They sell both - tightly integrated in a dance of total user experience. And with iTunes and the App store, they've added content to the... dance floor?
Microsoft makes an OS, but it is so generic and not targeted well to a specific form-factor. PC makers make varied hardware, but the OS & user experience aren't tailored enough to make the products simple & friendly. And neither MS nor the hardware makers have the agreements with content producers to provide compelling stores (MS probably does with the Zune, but I haven't seen them making the level of effort that Apple has done with iTunes.) And the few folks who do make compelling custom devices - like maybe Archos - are so small they can't muster the marketing clout to stand out.
At some point, I expect Apple will get big enough that the anti-trust folks will come snooping around and try to split them up. But until then, we'll get under-featured, locked down devices that work & sell great.
- Jasen.