The iPad's effect on rival companies' CEOs

Apple's iPad and iPhone are shaking up the netbook and smartphone market, producing a chain reaction of events that has led to the resignation of chief executives from three major electronics manufacturers.

This past Thursday, Acer Corp. CEO Gianfranco Lanci became third in the line when he announced his resignation from the Taiwanese company. A report from Digitimes suggests the success of the Apple iPad had a major impact on Acer's netbook business, which in turn led to Lanci's departure.

Acer climbed to the top of the netbook market when it introduced the Aspire One netbook back in 2008. Since the launch of the iPad in 2010, netbook manufacturers have struggled to compete with Apple's tablet device. The past year was particularly hard for Acer, which saw its netbook sales go flat, while the Apple iPad took off among consumers.

Acer is reportedly working on an iPad competitor, but the tablet device is said to be underpowered and "outmatched by the iPad in terms of both hardware and software."According to the report, Acer's focus on affordable consumer devices makes it incapable of producing a device to compete with Apple.

Acer is not alone in sacrificing its CEO as a result of Apple's success. In this last year, both Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo and LG CEO Nam Young left their respective positions due to increasing competition from Apple's mobile products. Both LG and Nokia are struggling in the smartphone market and have yet to produce a blockbuster handset to compete with the iPhone. LG's latest offering, the dual core Optimus 2X, features a dual-core processor, 4-inch display and an 8-megapixel camera, but the Android handset has not caught on as well as the Apple iPhone.

[Via AppleInsider]