Mobile
That why he’s the president of Acer and you’re not
Acer Taiwan president Scott Lin stated straight out he has no plans to go head-on against the iPad based on the strength of its music and app stores. Kudos to Lin for understanding the game. Going against the iPad doesn’t just mean competing against the device. It also means going against its ecosystem, same problem that iPod competitors failed to overcome. That’s why he’s the president of Acer, and Jared Newman at PC World is not…
Lin’s remarks are puzzling because, by his logic, smartphones wouldn’t be worth pursuing either. The iPhone was successful partly because of iTunes and eventually the App Store, but that hasn’t stopped competitors, including Acer. In particular, Android is gaining market share and has a growing app marketplace, and it relies on Amazon for music.
Except most of the guys competing against the iPhone were already in the smartphone business, so they were facing a competitor on their own turf, not entering a new battleground. And while it’s great that Android is picking up market share, don’t forget that share is split among several vendors, such as HTC, Motorola, and Samsung, and they’re also competing against Microsoft, Nokia, RIM, Palm, etc. That’s a crowded field.
Likewise, the tablet field already has ASUS, MSI, Lenovo, HP, and Dell as competitors. Acer, if they jumped in, would be fighting it out with them as well. Can’t fault Acer for not wanting to step in as the underdog in that battle royale. And sometimes biding one’s time, waiting for the competition to wear themselves out, is the smarter approach.
Michael Harrison
02/01/2010 at 5:31 pm
You left out Fujitsu and Toshiba in the tablet competitor list.
griz8791
02/01/2010 at 5:47 pm
And Motion Computing.
Acer USED to be in the tablet business. My wife had one of their convertibles.
Grant Tedaldi
02/01/2010 at 5:56 pm
Acer was out there in the ORIGINAL Tablet PCs (those by MS’ specs.) The C100 series was a godsend for me.
In any event- for a revolutionary device, take a look at the Acer C200 series. Never made it to the United States, but it has built in optical, and keyboard- yet the familiar slate factor.
Only a single wacom pen input though. Once again, hot stuff for artists- not so much for 8th graders.
Paul Harrigan
02/01/2010 at 6:55 pm
Somehow, I expect this is a temporary state of affairs for Acer.
If the tablet market succeeds, they probably will enter. At that time, they can say they found an unserved need for some feature.
On they other hand, they probably do not have a tablet ready to go to market, so this explains their absence.