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Acer Dismisses Apple’s Success on iPad, MacBook Air

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Though still un-matched by rivals in their respective spaces, Acer founder Stan Shih is dismissing the Cupertino, California’s success with the iPad tablet and MacBook Air ultraportable computer. Shih says that these fad products are just ‘short-term phenomena,’ and that his company will be coming out with its own products to compete in these respective spaces.

While Apple relies on its own internal operating systems for its own tablet, smartphone, and computing products, Acer is relying on Google’s Android platform for mobile and Microsoft’s Windows OS for its notebooks and desktops. The company had released an iPad challenger as a high-spec but low-price product in the form of the Acer Iconia Tab A500 and is now following up with a smaller tablet model that will hit price points below $350 in the 7-inch Honeycomb-driven Iconia Tab A100. As there isn’t much yet that differentiates one Honeycomb slate from another–and customizations like TouchWiz on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 are still relatively new–companies that release Android tablets often try to differentiate through price, with Apple setting the entry-level price at $500 with its base 16 GB WiFi-only iPad model.

Acer is also expected to enter the ultraportable category, or as Intel names them Ultrabooks, through its Aspire brand. However, to be successful, it would have to beat the market-defined pricing set by Apple with the Air at just under $1,000. Additionally, with Apple’s focus to detail and design with a unibody aluminum construction, competing products would have to match build quality, design aesthetics, and functionality in addition to competing with price.

It’s unclear if Shih’s focus on price will pay off. With competing tablets often costing less than the Apple iPad 2 through manufacturer or retail discounts and promotions, these products still have not been able to successfully compete with the iPad, suggesting that consumers want more than a low-cost product. Apple had re-defined the way that consumers approach technology by making advanced features approachable through intuitive design and interfaces, and unless companies can match this, it will be hard to compete. Even on the price scale, with Apple’s early run-away success, the company has built a large enough economy of scale where costs per component may be cheaper to secure than for other companies. Historically, Apple had made wise strategic component investments that would give it access to commodities at lower price points, such as flash memory in the iPod era.

Via: TUAW

13 Comments

13 Comments

  1. Anonymous

    08/10/2011 at 12:34 pm

    I just paid $ 23.86 for an iPhone and my girlfriend loves her Dell laptop that we got for $ 38.76 there arriving tomorrow by UPS I will never pay such expensive retail prices in stores again. Especially when I also sold a 42 inch LED TV to my boss for $ 665 which only cost me $ 62,81 to buy. Here is the website we use to get it all from

  2. John T.

    08/10/2011 at 2:03 pm

    Of course he’s going to say that, the clown.

  3. Paul

    08/10/2011 at 9:58 pm

    I’ve bought Acer. It’s absolute garbage. The customer service and worst of all the actual product is just shocking. Since I moved onto apple, the service and computing experience has increased 100 fold. Upon buying my first apple product, the bloke in Dick Smith (Australian Retailer) who was not even apple affiliated said to stay away from Acer as they lost count the amount of dead on arrivals and also display model acres which would have their keys fly off with normal use.

    I think Acer should be shut down. Never met a person with a good experience with them.

  4. Rolo1211

    08/11/2011 at 12:32 pm

    Not really a smart comment from Acer founder.
    I have Acer products and nothing is wrong with them- i just don’t think they have the power to even scratch Apple.
    However I still don’t understand Paul’s comment -how can someone use a product and the keys come flying off- sounds like pure miss-use to me. Try to be fair instead of biased.

  5. Anonymous

    08/12/2011 at 1:47 pm

    Acer products are getting better in design in recent year but to dismiss Apple’s products as fad or attempt to compete with Apple when you are Acer is just plain stupid.  

    The bottom line is Apple products no longer “just work”, they work better, extremely better.  People seem to be stuck on the “What” a product can do. Everybody can do the “WHAT”. It is ALL ABOUT the “HOW” and Apple knows the HOW.

    Yep, I am a biggest Apple fan boy.

  6. Bfm Magee

    08/17/2011 at 3:11 am

    Join the largest Iconia Tab forum on the net at https://iconiatabforums.com

  7. Nazli70

    03/29/2012 at 4:56 pm

    Short term phenomena and yet Acer is going into tablets and ultrabooks. Sore losers. I bought an Acer laptop once and it broke down after less than 2 years. And this happened despite taking good care of it. Safe to say that the laptop was the first and last time I spend money on Acer

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