Acer chairman convinced HP survival will fight iOS

Acer chairman JT Wang in remarks Monday made an unusual welcome for HP keeping its PC business. He saw the larger PC builder being key to supporting Windows for what he was convinced would be a revival stemming from Windows 8, Digitimes heard. Microsoft had been hurting its reception by adding "unnecessary functions," but would be addressing this with its OS next year; HP would help drive Windows' return to form and help everyone, Wang said.

As Apple's success was currently founded on smartphones and tablets, areas where Microsoft was weak, any shoring up of that weakness would help the industry as a whole slow Apple down, Wang explained.

The chairman and a number of other executives at Acer have focused much of their public commentary on Apple and have repeatedly insisted that Apple's success with the iPad was due to end at any moment and that Acer's Windows PCs would regain their status with little effort. A year ago, Wang argued that people would "return to their senses" and buy more PCs before long. After that failed to pass, he claimed again that netbooks and notebooks would recover in early spring this year, which didn't come true and saw Windows PCs grow much slower.

While the company has had modest success with its Iconia Tab line, results have usually gone in the opposite direction of Wang's predictions. The company fired its CEO Gianfranco Lanci and reorganized more around mobile. Acer's heavy reliance on netbooks and low-end notebooks has made it one of the most susceptible to the iPad's effects and has seen it rapidly bleed market share in PCs. Apple, while noticeably smaller worldwide, is now a bigger computer seller in the US than Acer, whether or not iPads are included.

By Electronista Staff

Post tools:

TAGS :  

computers, industry, Microsoft, HP, Acer, Apple, Windows 8, iPad