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Acer Chief: There Are Too Many PC Companies
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For Acer, it's just basic business.
Acer's chief executive Gianfranco Lanci expressed in a recent interview that he feels that there is too much competition in the PC market. More specifically, he believes that fewer players in the PC making market would lead to greater profits.
While that may sound like Business 101, Lanci took his insight further by saying that companies such as Acer need to look at buying out other computer companies in order to become more profitable.
"This can be a very good industry in terms of making profits if you think about there being four or five players instead of seven or eight as you see today," Mr. Lanci said to the New York Times. "There is not enough profit in the chain to maintain all these players today."
Lanci's logic is that though acquisitions, companies will become larger and thus be able to negotiate for better prices for computer components from suppliers and builders Quanta and Compal.
Acer's already played the buying game with its acquisitions of eMachines, Gateway and Packard Bell, which may have played a part in the company's rise now to rival Dell for the number two spot worldwide, behind Hewlett-Packard.
One thing is for certain, and that is Acer's not afraid to manage different brands it acquires as long as it's the same force pulling the strings in the background.
Lanci said in a previous interview, "One brand is almost impossible, if you want the right product and precision for the right customer profile."
From the sound of the Lanci's statements, Acer isn't finished yet on its mergers and acquisitions roll. While he wouldn't confirm what the company's next move may be, he did add, "I think we need to be part of this consolidation in some way."
Source : Tom's Hardware US
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Gee. Let me think. OH nothing new here. Of course Acer wants to say "he believes that fewer players in the PC making market would lead to greater profits." Well, duh. However while good for those few companies that will still exist. It does leave the overall Joe with limited choices. So imho, the more the merrier.
maybe HP is gonna buy acer
Acer could improve their own position by changing their business practices and trying to support their customers better.
ANTI-COMPETETIVE! Get 'em EU!
Self built > Prebuilt. Unless you're really short on time or there's some sort of blazing hot deal.
Less competition means higher prices for the consumer. If Acer gets what it wants it will have to try to make up for the costs of buying out the others. Don't think that this won't effect those of us who build our own PCs either because the "negotiate for better prices for computer components" Is really them saying "your forced to deal with us so we want that hardware for dirt cheap" This in turn will make the hardware companies rise the prices of their hardware to make of for its loss of profits which means retailers like Newegg will have to pay more and then that extra cost ends with us.
ANTI-COMPETETIVE! Get 'em EU!
LOL! Well that answers my question about who the EU will go after once they are done with M$.
self built is always good, but sometimes u can't ignore cheap deals on Used PCs like on craig list, especially if it was a self built.
Aww. Is poor little ACER having trouble competeing?
I'm pretty sure 99% of the world would like even more companies to drive prices even lower.
In my opinion no one company should control more than 10% of ANY MARKET. If so, split them up. This 'Too big to fail' garbage we got fed by the government is ridiculous. Never let any company get too big to fail.
Acer make a mac.
Then close ACER. That will fix his problem
LOL! Well that answers my question about who the EU will go after once they are done with M$.
EU prefers to go after American companies. That's why Acer hired this Italian CEO in order to expand in Europe.
acer still operates emachines and acer brand both sell different computers. pb and gateway are gone as brand names
I agree, Acer should fold. I still can't forgive them for the crap they put out in the 90's... even if their stuff now is pretty good.
Maybe if a PC company could make a laptop that was different than all of the other companies. Personally I am looking for the base macbook pro 13" from a pc company. I imagine it could be sold for $799 since it has a 9400m gt and a decent dual core processor. All of the pc laptop companies are just making the same plastic, heavy, and thick junk. I haven't seen much innovation in the physical pc laptop case in years. Dell almost has this laptop with the studio 14z, but it has no optical drive and it is still 1.25" towards the back of the machine. Also, a pc company needs to come along that offers really affordable warranties or have a two year one standard. On most sites I look at, a 2 year warranty can cost 1/3 the cost of the whole machine. A $700 laptop can easily become a $950 laptop with an extra year of warranty on it.
LOL! Well that answers my question about who the EU will go after once they are done with M$.
Acer has nowhere near the amount of money needed to make the EU go after them. Their net profit last year was only "about USD60.29 million.". If that M becomes a B, then they better watch out for the EU.
Self built > Prebuilt. Unless you're really short on time or there's some sort of blazing hot deal.
From a performance standpoint, of course. However, the real money is made with prebuilt computers that are sold to companies/schools/governments around the world.
The homebuilt enthusiast market is a very VERY small share of global computer sales.
Maybe if a PC company could make a laptop that was different than all of the other companies. Personally I am looking for the base macbook pro 13" from a pc company. I imagine it could be sold for $799 since it has a 9400m gt and a decent dual core processor. All of the pc laptop companies are just making the same plastic, heavy, and thick junk. I haven't seen much innovation in the physical pc laptop case in years. Dell almost has this laptop with the studio 14z, but it has no optical drive and it is still 1.25" towards the back of the machine. Also, a pc company needs to come along that offers really affordable warranties or have a two year one standard. On most sites I look at, a 2 year warranty can cost 1/3 the cost of the whole machine. A $700 laptop can easily become a $950 laptop with an extra year of warranty on it.
You can buy it from Apple and load Windows on it.
"he believes that fewer players in the PC making market would lead to greater profits" it's like: "If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator."
of course there are too many pc companies, they are so damn easy to build. And so much more profitable than other industries
Yeah - He's pretty much an asshole...Another reason I stay away from Acer products (like I need another one)!
Maybe if a PC company could make a laptop that was different than all of the other companies. Personally I am looking for the base macbook pro 13" from a pc company. I imagine it could be sold for $799 since it has a 9400m gt and a decent dual core processor. All of the pc laptop companies are just making the same plastic, heavy, and thick junk. I haven't seen much innovation in the physical pc laptop case in years. Dell almost has this laptop with the studio 14z, but it has no optical drive and it is still 1.25" towards the back of the machine. Also, a pc company needs to come along that offers really affordable warranties or have a two year one standard. On most sites I look at, a 2 year warranty can cost 1/3 the cost of the whole machine. A $700 laptop can easily become a $950 laptop with an extra year of warranty on it.
You do know that the exact same hardware in a "PC" comes in a Mac, right?
If you want a laptop with a decent case, check out lenovo. If you are drinking the thin laptop kool-aid; Lenovo's X300 model is the thinnest available. One year warranties usually come standard without extra cost.
In general, it is good practice to make sure you have all the information before you criticize something.
actually to njalterio and gcolefla, check out either the new Lenovo T400s (slimline like X300, but with 2.53GHz processor, and 14" screen - can even get with a Blu-Ray reader) or the new IdeaPad U350 (has external optical though).
In response to this article, Acer is an OEM to me - that's how they started. Secondly, they got bigger by acquisition (they bought Packard-Bell and Gateway). To me, Packard-Bell tells me what quality Acer is looking for. The problem with companies like Acer and Dell is that they suck the innovation out of the computer field - the reason you can't have aluminum cases is because these companies cut to the bone, and suck the innovation out. Acer used to have some good products (like the Ferrari notebook), but they went all Dell on us and decided that cheaper is better (for that matter, so has Toshiba).
Net is that only Lenovo and Apple make innovative, quality products. HP makes decent quality, and the rest get the PT Barnums of the world to buy.
actually to njalterio and gcolefla, check out either the new Lenovo T400s (slimline like X300, but with 2.53GHz processor, and 14" screen - can even get with a Blu-Ray reader) or the new IdeaPad U350 (has external optical though).
In response to this article, Acer is an OEM to me - that's how they started. Secondly, they got bigger by acquisition (they bought Packard-Bell and Gateway). To me, Packard-Bell tells me what quality Acer is looking for. The problem with companies like Acer and Dell is that they suck the innovation out of the computer field - the reason you can't have aluminum cases is because these companies cut to the bone, and suck the innovation out. Acer used to have some good products (like the Ferrari notebook), but they went all Dell on us and decided that cheaper is better (for that matter, so has Toshiba).
Net is that only Lenovo and Apple make innovative, quality products. HP makes decent quality, and the rest get the PT Barnums of the world to buy.
No, no, no, he is right, there are too many companies and some should be eliminated. So the first brands that can be eliminated from the market are Acer and all their sub-brands (Gateway, Emachines, Packard Bell, etc.). After all, they make by far the worst computers EVER!!!
Someone in the American auto industry had this same idea, now they are selling off their old acquisitions because they managed them so poorly. Big companies buying small companies kills innovation and hits consumers square in the wallet.
Here is what I see: two tiers of computer companies.
In tier 1 we have: HP, Dell, Apple, Toshiba
In tier 2 we have: Lenovo, Acer, Asus (small but rising), and everyone else.
We lost Compaq a couple years back and HP kinda came in from the printer market and replaced them. I don't think we have too many, just a lot of smaller companies that aren't quite as popular. My first computer over a decade ago was an Acer and I haven't looked back since.
doesnt matter to me , unless they start trying to shut down parts vendors , im never buying an "over-the-counter"PC again , i'm building all my pc's myself from here on out
they'll be fine since more, if not most, people are into computing.
Acer, their products are garbage...their product quality is next to zero.
They should improve the product quality before thinking of buying any other PC companies.
I would have to disagree with the quality issue with Acer...I used to think that all Acer laptops were total crap, until my brother bought a ridiculously cheap Acer Extensa for college...and to be honest, the laptop is actually pretty nice...everything has been working perfectly (after more than a year) considering my brother is an expert and destroying computers, and Im even more surprised that everything runs pretty smoothly with Vista...they obviously concentrate on low-mid range products, but when you think about it, those two are the biggest markets...