Acer Chairman says iPad impact not serious

At a recent talk in Taiwan, Chairman J.T. Wang said he believes demand for netbooks is stable except in the US and the UK. I'm sure that is his hope and fondest dream.

Wang said he thought that early sales of the iPad were simply the result of a rush for the new device. He added that most iPad users were switching to desktops and laptops to write text documents or spreadsheets.

When asked about Acer's loss of market share, the Chairman replied that the drop was "...mainly due to competitors cutting prices to compete, and that Acer did not follow suit."

The report, carried in DigiTimes, noted that the Acer tablet is behind schedule. It will supposedly have a 7" screen and be based on Android. Wang says the company is waiting for "related technologies to mature."

Apple CEO Steve Jobs said earlier this week that 7" tablets are not terribly usable, despite rumors that Apple has been working on a tablet of that size.

[Via Electronista]

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Source: http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/10/20/acer.chairman.…

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At a recent talk in Taiwan, Chairman J.T. Wang said he believes demand for netbooks is stable except in the US and the UK. I'm sure that is...

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KJP

Haven't we heard just about enough from this guy?

October 20 2010 at 12:53 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

drange

"When asked about Acer's loss of market share, the Chairman replied that the drop was "...mainly due to competitors cutting prices to compete, and that Acer did not follow suit."

I read that as: "it's a race to the bottom and we are losing". Personally I think current developments in consumer technology are showing that more and more people start realizing price isn't the only thing that matters. At some point everyone will have had some kind of cheap-ass netbook or laptop and don't want another one. Betting everything on low-margin, high volume products does not seem a very smart move to me.

October 20 2010 at 12:40 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

2 replies to drange's comment

chris

"Betting everything on low-margin, high volume products does not seem a very smart move to me."

I agree, but I'm not sure the competition will have much choice. Would they be able to stand toe to toe with Apple at the same price point? Nope.

October 20 2010 at 12:52 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

drange

@chris
Agreed. Just saw the MacBook air refresh, and while these machines are 4 times more expensive than your typical Acer netbook, I'd gladly spend my money on these and just keep them twice as long if I was in the market for an ultraportable. Netbooks now officially have only 1 thing going for them and that's price, plain and simple. Somehow I can not think of a single OEM that will be able to match Apple on both price and quality if it comes to ultraportables, at least not on a large scale.

The iPad will maybe chew some more off the affordable mobile computing pie for Acer, but I think that's not their biggest problem by a long shot. The netbook market has been saturated long ago, and there's hardly any innovation or brand image anymore to make people choose Acer over Asus, HP, Dell, MSI, Samsung, etc. Instead of philosophizing over how the iPad affects netbook sales he should be thinking about making better products that stand out, why people buy them and how Acer should compete on more than just price. Price != value.

October 20 2010 at 3:20 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply