Acer to "overhaul operations" in the wake of Apple's iPad
The founder of Acer, the second largest PC maker globally, has acknowledged that the company must overhaul its operations to focus on profit margins rather than market share in reaction to the success of Apple.
A report by China Economic News stated that Stan Shih, founder of the Taiwan PC giant, made his comments after two quarters of downward revisions of sales targets.
Acer just released new outlook calling for a ten percent decline in sales over the next quarter, rather than its original estimate of three percent growth. That announcement sent the company's stock down seven percent, the daily limit for the market, for two days in a row.
The report noted that Acer "has been striving to become the world`s largest PC vendor, in the belief that the goal can help it achieve economy of scale and garner higher margin."
Acer had invested in netbooks particularly, achieving rapid growth in its PC sales via volumes of the low-cost mini notebooks hit hardest by the arrival of Apple's iPad last summer. Hype around netbooks has since nearly vanished.
Shih added that the 'honor of the world`s largest PC vendor may be achieved at the expense of profit margin,' and suggested that the PC industry "should not single-mindedly pursue volume growth, and should extend its operation to the field of service, just like what Apple has done," according to the report.
Competitors hate Apple's iPad, iOS
Last fall, Acer's chairman JT Wang predicted that Apple's share of the tablet market would plunge from near 100 percent to just 20 to 30 percent because of the "closed platform" of Apple's iPad iOS, noting confidence in Android in saying that it "simply need a little more time before it turns strong."
HP and Dell recently made similar remarks assailing the iPad and Apple's iOS, while Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie described the iPad as possibly being a short-lived fad positioned between smartphones and portable computers.
Both Gartner and IDC ranked Apple fifth in US PC Shipments in the fourth quarter of 2011 based entirely upon Mac sales alone (which made up 8.7 to 9.7 percent of the PC market, according to the two firms).
When adding in iPad sales, Apple became the top US vendor at the end of 2010, with 24 percent of all US PC sales, and enters striking distance of Acer and Dell for the number two PC spot globally.
Apple continues to essentially own the "media tablet" market, even when low cost devices such as dedicated ereaders are mixed in, creating consternation for both PC makers and general consumer electronics makers.
A report by China Economic News stated that Stan Shih, founder of the Taiwan PC giant, made his comments after two quarters of downward revisions of sales targets.
Acer just released new outlook calling for a ten percent decline in sales over the next quarter, rather than its original estimate of three percent growth. That announcement sent the company's stock down seven percent, the daily limit for the market, for two days in a row.
The report noted that Acer "has been striving to become the world`s largest PC vendor, in the belief that the goal can help it achieve economy of scale and garner higher margin."
Acer had invested in netbooks particularly, achieving rapid growth in its PC sales via volumes of the low-cost mini notebooks hit hardest by the arrival of Apple's iPad last summer. Hype around netbooks has since nearly vanished.
Shih added that the 'honor of the world`s largest PC vendor may be achieved at the expense of profit margin,' and suggested that the PC industry "should not single-mindedly pursue volume growth, and should extend its operation to the field of service, just like what Apple has done," according to the report.
Competitors hate Apple's iPad, iOS
Last fall, Acer's chairman JT Wang predicted that Apple's share of the tablet market would plunge from near 100 percent to just 20 to 30 percent because of the "closed platform" of Apple's iPad iOS, noting confidence in Android in saying that it "simply need a little more time before it turns strong."
HP and Dell recently made similar remarks assailing the iPad and Apple's iOS, while Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie described the iPad as possibly being a short-lived fad positioned between smartphones and portable computers.
Both Gartner and IDC ranked Apple fifth in US PC Shipments in the fourth quarter of 2011 based entirely upon Mac sales alone (which made up 8.7 to 9.7 percent of the PC market, according to the two firms).
When adding in iPad sales, Apple became the top US vendor at the end of 2010, with 24 percent of all US PC sales, and enters striking distance of Acer and Dell for the number two PC spot globally.
Apple continues to essentially own the "media tablet" market, even when low cost devices such as dedicated ereaders are mixed in, creating consternation for both PC makers and general consumer electronics makers.
Comments
All these companies are competing with single product and can barely overtake it. They're not looking at the system as a whole, that's the true competitor. It's the Apple's eco-system. And with the future of iMac and iOS this is only going to become harder and harder to compete against.
Only Google has some sort of advantage and true competition with Apple because they too have their own very popular eco-system. But they are all over the place and can't focus on key elements.
Remember when certain people said the netbook market was strong and that tablets running mobile OSes couldn’t possibly dent a market with tablets or netbooks because they ran a full OS, not a “toy” OS? I sure do.
Ugh. Mis-read your post.
Netbook market didn't work precisely for the reason many of us said it wouldn't. A desktop OS on a tiny under powered computer was the worst of both worlds.
Remember when certain people said the netbook market was strong and that tablets running mobile OSes couldn?t possibly dent a market with tablets or netbooks because they ran a full OS, not a ?toy? OS? I sure do.
It'll be years, if ever, that the Apple eco-system will be challenged. Remember, as long as you stay at the intersection of Liberal Arts Avenue and Technology Street, you can't lose.
@felixbrenner
Remember when certain people said the netbook market was strong and that tablets running mobile OSes couldn?t possibly dent a market with tablets or netbooks because they ran a full OS, not a ?toy? OS? I sure do.
Funny, that crossed my mind just a few minutes before I read your post. They were quite vehement. Tablets were just netbooks, but crippled. Tablets had no reason to exist. Big iPod Touch. Cheap, crappy netbooks were the future of popular computing and it was going to destroy Apple once and for all (or Apple absolutely had to Respond To The Netbook Challenge immediately or be rendered irrelevant).
And a lot of the people who were very strident on that count are still posting here now, and they've just moved on to being strident about something else without a second's acknowledgement of how wrong they were. For the most part they just seamlessly transitioned to championing Android tablets as if they had always been fans of the format.
Stevo has given them the formula for success, control the manufacture of hardware and the software for the best experience for the user.
90% of the companies where the founder leaves the CEO spot and an outside CEO is hired, eventually fail. Coco-Cola, MacDonald's, Ford, etc., are the exceptions.
Most CEO's and their executive teams are idiots. Perfect example is Verizon's CEO who passed on the iPhone. What a tool.
Best
90% of the companies where the founder leaves the CEO spot and an outside CEO is hired, eventually fail. Coco-Cola, MacDonald's, Ford, etc., are the exceptions.
While I haven't heard of this MacDonald's you speak of, all companies had bad times when they transitioned from CEOs of one vision to another. McDonalds in particular had several years where they were trying to re-invent themselves (90's).
Acer used to be the cheap upstart, now they're being undercut in the market they helped create. Good luck changing gears and having anyone take you seriously as a value added vendor, however. Dell, the original price cutter, really hasn't had much luck with premium branding, because they spent all those years establishing themselves as cheap but serviceable. Why would anyone want to buy higher margin kit from Acer? It would be like a gourmet menu at McDonald's.
Right now there is the tiny iPod Nano music player with a touch screen that has limited capabilities. Screens can't get smaller than that. IPod Touch units just need more storage and programs. Something that small is about the limit of touch screen devices that are functional for more than music reproduction.
The iPad will become a stand alone computer within a year and a half. It needs to break free of iTunes.
Desktop computers won't go away. The functionality of a Mac Pro will eventually be stuffed into a Mac Mini size package. Even that might get stuffed into the back of an extremely thin iMac screen. All of that will be blended into large screen TVs that come with WiFi or whatever flavor of wireless connectivity is available.
Cable TV will die if the ISPs are restrained from creating data limits. The iPad computers will be all in one devices that can wirelessly access streaming data and port it to TV screens.
Can Acer do these things?
Will Acer's new plan to offer better service help them to grow? First they need to make products that aren't cheap and require customer service.
Even if Acer succeeds at mimicking the things Apple creates they have a long way to go in turning around a global customer service problem. If I were to ever buy an Acer product, it would come from a local computer store that guarantees service. Otherwise I'd stay away from their products until their customer service problem is handled.
I have a feeling that the ipad will go pro and if that happens all hell will break loose, again. And GOD can you imagine if Apple did a stylus for the ipad? Jesus!!!!
I would go back to elementary school! I believe Apple is the only outfit that can do a stylus for ipad that can be as close to writing on paper as possible. And the apps for that!
ANOTER GOLD RUSH!
Screw the courier, MS, MSI, Acer etc folks. Apple has set a road map for the next effing decade!!!
Most CEO's and their executive teams are idiots. Perfect example is Verizon's CEO who passed on the iPhone. What a tool.
Cingular's CEO (AKA Mr. Notecard) didn't seem to be the sharpest tool either.
Cingular's CEO (AKA Mr. Notecard) didn't seem to be the sharpest tool either.
My guess is that most of these CEOs got hired because they used the catchiest buzzwords: monetize! operationalize! outside-the-box thinking! paradigm shift! SYNERGY!!! vertical integration!! mindshare! ideation! future-proof! and last, but not least... BLEEDING EDGE!!!
Why would you even try being the biggest pc vendor in the world? That is an outdated construct. The pc is nothing but Windows xyz tossed up its a$$ and mass produced.It is cheap and flipping disposable.
I have a feeling that the ipad will go pro and if that happens all hell will break loose, again. And GOD can you imagine if Apple did a stylus for the ipad? Jesus!!!!
I would go back to elementary school! I believe Apple is the only outfit that can do a stylus for ipad that can be as close to writing on paper as possible. And the apps for that!
ANOTER GOLD RUSH!
Screw the courier, MS, MSI, Acer etc folks. Apple has set a road map for the next effing decade!!!
As a first step in that direction, People are doing it already.
Apparently they didn't get the Microsoft memo about the post-PC era being "the room"
He makes too much sense , must not have gone down u der.
Isn't everyone overhauling now? I mean, who is even close to achieving what iOS has achieved?
It'll be years, if ever, that the Apple eco-system will be challenged. Remember, as long as you stay at the intersection of Liberal Arts Avenue and Technology Street, you can't lose.
@felixbrenner
You apparently missed the guy in the other thread who explained tomus why iOS is already dead.