The tablet trend has caught on with Acer too. The company’s new management has decided to shift its focus to the segment. Acer had previously focused its attention on boosting shipments of laptops to generate more revenue.
Acer’s chairman JT Wang also said that the company will concentrate on creating more value for customers instead of driving volume. For users it means products will be better, but that they will be more expensive as well. Going forward, Acer also intends to recruit more research and development talent.
Due to the razor thin margins that Acer operates on, market observers are concerned that the company may not be able to afford more research and development expenses. Acer, on the other hand, believes the growth in its revenue will offset the increased R&D expenses.
“It is no longer meaningful for Acer to pursue growth in sales volumes. The company should from now on focus on upgrading its profit margins,” Acer’s founder was quoted as saying in the Financial Times.
Acer will manufacture a Windows 8 tablet in association with Microsoft, and sees in it a huge opportunity for growth.
The movement of Acer in the tablet market has been slower than expected, especially considering the response of Dell and Hewlett-Packard. These two companies are not that directly affected by reduced personal computer sales, but have still responded well to the challenge thrown by Apple.
The situation has not always been the same at Acer. The company, which was an impressive success once, was caught off guard by the arrival of tablet PCs, and by the decreasing sales of netbooks. The resignation of its chief executive officer Gianfranco Lanci in March this year only underlines the problems the laptop maker is facing.