Acer: Microsoft Surface 'Negative For The Whole PC Industry'

Shortly after Microsoft announced its upcoming Surface tablet, there was speculation that it might sour the company's relationships with OEM partners. Statements from an Acer spokesperson indicate that's definitely the case. The spokesperson told Bloomberg, "On one hand Microsoft is our partner, but on the other, Microsoft’s move makes them compete not only with us but all PC makers. We think that Microsoft’s launch of its own-brand products is negative for the whole PC industry." The company is reportedly considering whether or not they want to keep relying on Microsoft's software products.

Re:So?

[oakgrove]

Acer already makes a line of Android tablets.

There are more products available for Acer to manufacture than Android tablets and Windows PCs. They're heavy in the personal computing sector but in addition to owning the largest franchise retail chain in Taipei, they also make storage devices, displays, smartphones, projectors, televisions, and peripherals none of which are dependent on Microsoft's goodwill. In 2011 they only pulled in 200 million on 16 billion in revenue so PC sales are almost certainly not making them a ton of money anyway. They're in a tough spot but it isn't all doom and gloom even if they do stop making PCs.

Re:2013

[LurkerXXX]

A little reality check:

Most folks who are getting those smartphones are updating their phones every 2-3 years when their contract runs out with their carrier.

Most folks continue to use the same PC for 5+ years before upgrading.

So the larger Android output is very much tenuated by the devices far higher churn rate.

Well of course it is, and it's Acer's fault

[holophrastic]

Microsoft gave Acer the last three years to come up with a consumer tablet. And Acer didn't. Sure they made one or two, but those weren't anything ipad-competitive, and Acer didn't market them at all.

So after this many years of the iPad being basically the only marketed tablet, I can respect Microsoft's choice to step up. . .since no one else seems willing to do so.

And yes, in order to do so itself, microsoft needs to make the entire solution, and market the entire solution, and take all of the risk, and force the start screen, and everything else that may be required to compete with the iPad.

And if those tablets are relatively successful, Microsoft will turn it back to Acer-like partners. And if those tablets are very successful, Microsoft will rightfully keep things for itself. And if they fail entirely, then Acer will be right.

It's that simple.

So next time, Acer, try to actually innovate products yourself, instead of yelling at those who try. And stop complaining when someone steps forward to do something that you specifically avoided doing yourself.

Re:2013

[Lunix Nutcase]

Currently the linux distrubution Android is outselling Windows 7 with about 50%.

No it's not. Microsoft sells more than 300 million licenses a year to Windows 7. Even at the 700,000 a day Android activations (assuming each are a unique sale) that is still less than all the license sales in a year.

Re:Well of course it is, and it's Acer's fault

[oakgrove]

Microsoft gave Acer the last three years to come up with a consumer tablet. And Acer didn't.

How did Acer have three years to come up with a tablet for Microsoft with no OS from them to run on it? Windows 7 on a tablet in the face of the iPad is doomed. What good would throwing money down a hole, e.g., marketing something like that against the iPad have done?

So after this many years of the iPad being basically the only marketed tablet, I can respect Microsoft's choice to step up. . .since no one else seems willing to do so.

Microsoft are "stepping up" because they think they have something now that actually has a chance. How do you expect Acer would have gotten Windows 8 from 2 years ago? A time machine?

And if those tablets are relatively successful, Microsoft will turn it back to Acer-like partners.

Do you think Acer won't be making Windows 8 tablets from day one? They are locked out of WinRT tablets but that doesn't have anything to do with the x86 version. There is nothing for MS to "turn over" unless you are referring to the aforementioned WinRT stuff and if you think that's going to do anything against the iPad you need to ask HP who refused to even try to compete with ARM Windows because they know better.

So next time, Acer, try to actually innovate products yourself, instead of yelling at those who try. And stop complaining when someone steps forward to do something that you specifically avoided doing yourself.

Again, how the hell was Acer supposed to make a touch screen Windows and accompanying ecosystem? Steal the source code and work on it themselves? None of what you are saying makes a lick of sense.

And if you try to come back talking about their Android efforts I'm going to laugh at you as you led with "MS gave Acer three years" which doesn't have a good goddamned thing to do with Android.

Re:Pot Calling The Kettle A Racist Word

[Azathfeld]

Acer, along with Toshiba, has by far the worst warranty support in the business. But unlike Toshiba, who have been improving their reliability scores over the years, Acer still uses bottom-shelf parts. These are still the only two companies that won't overnight replacement parts to a qualified technician, and instead send them seven-day mail. Acer is only worth buying if you upgrade like a madman or you can stand being without your machine for a couple of weeks. And every time I say this, someone jumps up to say that they had an Acer and they loved it, and that's fine. Your N is one. My N is greater than a thousand, and I can tell you with certainty and actual statistics that Acers break down like crazy. The only worse are Gateway and HP. Et voila: http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/11/17/reliability.study.has.apple.4th.place/ [electronista.com] Also, don't buy Gateway or HP.

Re:Pot Calling The Kettle A Racist Word

[FireFury03]

I have owned a couple of Acer laptops over the years and they were great bang for buck. They were cheap and broke down, but by then I wanted an upgrade anyway. Buying a higher end machine would have still been out of date, I would still want to update, and the resale value would not pay back the difference I initially paid...

I've got an Acer laptop and will never buy from Acer again.

It kills batteries - after only a year their capacity is significantly degraded. But Acer considers batteries "consumables" so the fact that the charger in the laptop kills them isn't covered by the warranty.

They flatly refused to refund my Windows licence fee (first thing I did when I got the machine was wipe Windows since I have no use for it). Not that long after they did this a French court ruled that they weren't allowed to decline to refund the Windows licence so I guess I should've tried again.

The machine has a DSDT bug, which I reported to them, then I wrote a DSDT patch and sent that to them too in the hope that they might release a new BIOS for the machine to correct it. They won't even acknowledge my emails any more: http://www.nexusuk.org/~steve/acer.xhtml [nexusuk.org]

I find the hardware largely ok, but their complete refusal to provide any kind of after-sales support, even for design defects, would stop me buying from them again.