Skip to main content

Acer blames its decline on Ultrabook, touch panel investments

Newly minted Acer CEO Jason Chen held a press conference today in Taiwan, his first since taking the helm of the sluggish PC manufacturer last month. To kick off his tenure as Acer’s head cheese, Chen offered some thoughts on why he felt the company has ceded significant chunks of marketshare to rival computer manufacturers, stating that the firm made a costly error by diving into investments of touch panels and Ultrabooks too hard and too fast.

“We wanted to stimulate demand using new technology and we took the initiative more aggressively than anybody else, to the point where we got hurt,” Chen said. “Hopefully we won’t repeat the same mistake we made before.” Chen also stated that “We need to dig ourselves out of a hole,” according to Bloomberg.

Recommended Videos

And what a hole it’s been. Despite the fact that Acer has released solid products, like its unconventional but excellent R7 notebook, market research firm IDC found that, during the fourth quarter of 2013, Acer suffered from a 21.4 percent decline in sales of their PCs when compared to the previous period in 2012. This was also the largest drop experienced by any of the big PC manufacturers, which include Lenovo and HP.

Though Acer has made some progress in the tablet market, with its slate marketshare having grown from under 1 percent in the third quarter of 2012 to 2.5 percent in the same period during 2013, Chen and the firm will both need to do something swiftly in order to halt the free fall that the company has experienced in recent times.

Konrad Krawczyk
Former Computing Editor
Konrad covers desktops, laptops, tablets, sports tech and subjects in between for Digital Trends. Prior to joining DT, he…
Acer is finally back in the gaming monitor fight
The Acer Predator X27 F3 sitting on a table.

Acer just announced three new OLED gaming monitors at Computex 2024, which isn't too surprising. Event after event, we see a range of new Predator monitors packing a recent panel, but for a price that just isn't competitive with the rest of the market. Pricing isn't changing, but one of Acer's new monitors might get it back to the legendary status is once held.

Let's back up. Several years back, Acer was at the top of the gaming monitor stack. Its Predator X34 was one of the best gaming monitors you could buy, packing the coveted 21:9 aspect ratio and a high refresh rate. It occupied a similar space in the market that the Alienware 34 QD-OLED does now. It was early on the scene, and it rode that wave for several years.

Read more
Acer has 3 new OLED gaming monitors, including one with a 480Hz refresh rate
The Acer Predator X34 X5 monitor over a light blue background.

Acer just opened up its metaphorical bag of goodies at Computex 2024, and a whole lot of monitors fell right out. There's a lot to sink your teeth into, but we've got our eyes on the OLED models -- one of them more than the others.

The Predator X27 F3 combines a WQHD OLED display with a 480Hz refresh rate, coming close to the best of both worlds for gamers. You won't have to choose between crisp visuals and high refresh rates here. However, its price is high enough to make your eyes water just as much as the lightning-fast gameplay might.

Read more
This Acer OLED laptop (almost) beats the MacBook Air 15 — and it’s cheaper
Acer Swift Edge 16 front angled view showing display and keyboard.

Larger laptops have become more popular as the industry adapts to the needs of hybrid workers and creators. But some users value portability over power, so a number of new thin and light 15-inch laptops and larger have hit the market to meet their needs.

Apple recently released its largest MacBook Air ever, the MacBook Air 15, which is incredibly thin and reasonably light. Acer has its Swift Edge 16, which is one of the lightest large laptops, but not quite as thin as the MacBook. Which of these machines is right for you?
Specs and configurations

Read more