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Acer’s Everywhere. How Did That Happen?

nytimes.com

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Re: Acer’s Everywhere. How Did That Happen?

#2

Post by jerryji »

So _how_ exactly did it happen?

It's such a typical distracted and convoluted main stream news that after reading the article my brain was like a messed up Rubik's Cube and I had to twist much just to summarize only two points:

* Aggressive investment in Netbook, which is supposed to be disruptive innovation. This is fine.

* Acer is free to choose low cost parts for its laptop -- this is considerably fluffier as if its competitors are doing (trying to do) the same.

Anyone else has a better idea?

Re: Acer’s Everywhere. How Did That Happen?

#3

Post by old-gregg »

jerryji wrote: post #2

So _how_ exactly did it happen? It's such a typical distracted and convoluted main stream news that after reading the article my brain was like a messed up Rubik's Cube and I had to twist much just to summarize only two points: * Aggressive investment in Netbook, which is supposed to be disruptive innovation. This is fine. * Acer is free to choose low cost parts for its laptop -- this is considerably fluffier as if i…

Easy. It's not just Acer, it is Asus and MSI and possibly many more to come. And its not because they're doing something exceptional. The business of PC building has changed to their advantage because of two (harshly worded) trends:

1. Computers, even laptops, become commoditized and don't require much of R&D to design and produce.

2. The majority of PC sales are consumers' who, unlike business customers, prefer cheap disposable junk, hence there isn't a single 24-bit true-color laptop available to buy these days: they're all gone. (which makes me wonder: what is the point of these high-tech digital SLRs?)

Don't bring the Apple argument: their success rests on value-add services/software that just happen to run well on in-house hardware.

P.S. Suddenly, IBM's decision to sell off PC business several years ago looks even more impressive.

Re: Acer’s Everywhere. How Did That Happen?

#4

Post by boundlessdreamz »

old-gregg wrote: post #3
jerryji wrote: post #2

So _how_ exactly did it happen? It's such a typical distracted and convoluted main stream news that after reading the article my brain was like a messed up Rubik's Cube and I had to twist much just to summarize only two points: * Aggressive investment in Netbook, which is supposed to be disruptive innovation. This is fine. * Acer is free to choose low cost parts for its laptop -- this is considerably fluffier as if i…

Easy. It's not just Acer, it is Asus and MSI and possibly many more to come. And its not because they're doing something exceptional. The business of PC building has changed to their advantage because of two (harshly worded) trends: 1. Computers, even laptops, become commoditized and don't require much of R&D to design and produce. 2. The majority of PC sales are consumers' who, unlike business customers, prefer chea…

IBM's decision to sell off the Thinkpad business was a good one. They must have learned it from the commidification of their other businesses like the Hard Disk business.

The margin of Acer is 2%. That is really really low. IBM margins in services must be in 20s.

Re: Acer’s Everywhere. How Did That Happen?

#5

Post by Create »

The heading/article should rather be:

Intel’s Everywhere. How Did That Happen? (nytimes.com)

And it suddenly becomes obvious: you need a case for the chips, preferably with the least margin possible for .tw - Quoting Otellini is not an accident. Those who had the doublethought of going ARM/MIPS are suffering hard.

Re: Acer’s Everywhere. How Did That Happen?

#7

Post by songism »

boundlessdreamz wrote: post #4
old-gregg wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Easy. It's not just Acer, it is Asus and MSI and possibly many more to come. And its not because they're doing something exceptional. The business of PC building has changed to their advantage because of two (harshly worded) trends: 1. Computers, even laptops, become commoditized and don't require much of R&D to design and produce. 2. The majority of PC sales are consumers' who, unlike business customers, prefer chea…

IBM's decision to sell off the Thinkpad business was a good one. They must have learned it from the commidification of their other businesses like the Hard Disk business. The margin of Acer is 2%. That is really really low. IBM margins in services must be in 20s.

Yup. IBM has an operating margin of 17% according to Yahoo.

Re: Acer’s Everywhere. How Did That Happen?

#9

Post by ieatpaste »

just_the_tip wrote: post #8
ieatpaste wrote: post #6

Acer was already everywhere, just branded under another company's logo. Acer, Asus, MSI, LG, Levono, HTC were OEMs for popular brands who decided to strike off on their own.

You sure about LG and Lenovo?

Lenovo were the OEMs for IBM's Thinkpads. LG still makes monitors for Dell, hard drives that are rebadged and I'm not sure of what else (they are a huge conglomerate)
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