Acer: ultra-thin notebooks are the future
updated 02:40 pm EST, Wed December 9, 2009
Acer adds Dell, Intel, HP hurting the market
Ultra-thin notebooks are the future but are being hampered by Dell, HP and even Intel itself, Acer chairman JT Wang said on Wednesday. He fully expects these systems, combined with longer battery life, to become a major trend but believes Dell and HP have 'spoiled' the segment by dropping the prices of regular notebooks to $399, discouraging shoppers from picking up the more portable systems. They also do little to promote the slimmer notebooks themselves.
The executive also partly blames Intel as its emphasis on full-size notebook processors next year may hurt the low-power chips needed for thinner computers. Simultaneously, though, Wang believes Intel may be unfairly influenced by Dell and HP as their preferences for larger notebooks distort the actual demand from others.
Acer has a vested interest in promoting the category as its Timeline series and related Gateway models form a significant part of its business: about 30 percent of its systems shipped next year will fit into the category. Currenly, only a handful of major companies currently design systems that fit the criteria; Apple's MacBook Air and Lenovo's ThinkPad X301 represent the high end of the group, but most use Intel's much less expensive CULV processors and cost under $1,000.
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What?
Is this guy really saying Intel is using it's market position to strong-arm their customers into pushing some products more than others? Intel would never do such an anti-competitive thing!
And of course Intel, Dell, and HP are trying to hinder the ultra-thin/netbook market. If people realized these computers do what they need a computer to do, they'd realize they were spending way more money than necessary on computers, and it would cut a gigantic swath into their revenue streams.
Luckily Apple has the solution to all this. Don't make any cheap computers, and try your best to make sure your OS can't run on them. That way your loyal customers have to buy the more expensive ones, not choose to.