9 ms·

Acer begs Microsoft to 'think twice' about Surface tablet

43 points by pietrofmaggi 14y ago

jamesbressi 14y ago
I smell fear. I am not a Microsoft fan-boy... far from it, but I have been wondering for years if Microsoft is ever going to drop the hammer and get some control on their software distribution by designing hardware with the intention of allowing the software to run as intended. For many years I watched the bloatware that totally ruined the user experience, especially at the turn of the century. Can Microsoft make quality hardware to compliment their software and in turn make their software feel "better" to the many of those who have turned away from it? They have the capital to figure it out. The only "huge negative impact" that I can see from this is pushing the hardware manufacturers to innovate harder and do better with the use and distribution of the software. It is going to thin the herd for sure. I think this is necessary for Microsoft to gain some control over the user experience. Yes, resellers and hardware manufacturers helped make Microsoft the huge corporation it is today, but the time has come. I think Microsoft only has to gain from this--if they do the hardware right.
- bitdiffusion 14y ago
  It's not like this is the first time MS have done the hardware/software combo (which has been pretty successful for them)... xbox anyone?
  - Karunamon 14y ago
    That's an entirely different level though. A game console is a far different beast (with arguably a different customer base with wildly different expectations) than a general purpose computer. As it stands, the only company to have been successful in the consumer sector with that formula has been Apple. It'll be interesting to see if Microsoft can pull it off.
  - sek 14y ago
    If the Surface is like the Xbox, Microsoft has a problem. The Xbox did cost billions and took years until it made a profit. When the Surface costs billions for years and at the same time Microsoft pisses off the hardware producers they will focus on Ubuntu/Android/ChromeOS devices. This would hurt the big cash cow Windows licenses and make Microsoft weaker than ever.
    - brudgers 14y ago
      Linux/Android/Chromium are not economically viable alternatives to Windows for hardware manufacturers on a large enough scale. On the consumer side it's "Not only is it not a Mac, it doesn't even come with Windows." On the commercial side it's, "Can it run Excel" - some things never change and Visicalc is still the killer application, so to speak. It is, in my opinion, a mistake to expect corporations to operate on the principles which drive persons. So long as Windows remains a profitable operating system for Acer, Acer will continue to install it. And that will continue to be the case unless Best Buy starts hiring Linux gurus for its sales floor.
    - jimfl 14y ago
      For the XBox model to work, apps will have to cost $40.
    - georgeecollins 14y ago
      Xbox did lose Microsoft billion(s) and take years to become profitable. But now it is profitable and one of their key products. They could lose billions on the Surface but they can also afford to lose billions. They have lost billions on terrible acquisitions in the last decade. I think it is better to spend the money on products that could help them be competitive.
      - technoslut 14y ago
        The Xbox 360 also had significant hardware problems that weren't alleviated until price did not become an issue for MS which is how it's always been on consoles.
  - nodata 14y ago
    Or the Zune.
- technoslut 14y ago
  >The only "huge negative impact" that I can see from this is pushing the hardware manufacturers to innovate harder and do better with the use and distribution of the software. MS can't have it both ways unless they want to become Apple. You can't ask an OEM to innovate and take most of their profits away in a race to the bottom market. It's simply not fair. MS is going to have to make a choice in the future of who they want to become. They can't slam Google a year ago for what they are doing now. I'm not sure how MS can find a way out but they had better do so soon because the future is being decided during MS's conflicted beliefs and the risk is greater than just losing Windows dominance.
  - tedunangst 14y ago
    MS is doing the opposite of a race to the bottom. They are raising the bar. Your product must this good to enter the market. Make something better than the Surface and sell it for a 20% margin, instead of the 0.2% margin the current crap makes.
  - LockeWatts 14y ago
    MS can't have it both ways unless they want to become Apple. You can't ask an OEM to innovate and take most of their profits away in a race to the bottom market. It's simply not fair. Why not, exactly? As long as it increases Microsoft's profits, what prevents them from doing this?
- hollerith 14y ago
  >I have been wondering for years if Microsoft is ever going to drop the hammer and get some control on their software distribution by designing hardware with the intention of allowing the software to run as intended. But they did not have to decide to make their own hardware: they could have imposed controls on bloatware as a condition of OEM's licensing Windows.
ConstantineXVI 14y ago
Acer should be scared. I've already sworn them off after every Acer PC myself or a friend has owned in the past six years has failed in one way or another long before it should have. Anyone that knows how to make quality hardware has much less to worry about.
tokenizer 14y ago
I really hope the reaction by third party hardware partners is to start partnering with linux distros. It would be great to have cheaply priced computers as an alternative to the Mac and upcoming MS ecosystems.
- uvTwitch 14y ago
  For linux's sake, I'd hope they don't partner with Acer.
  - tokenizer 14y ago
    Fair enough. They would most likely fill it with bloatware. I guess I'm hoping Lenovo and other reputable firms would start selling Linux boxes.
  - rocky1138 14y ago
    What, you've never heard of Acix? /kidding
uvTwitch 14y ago
Please Microsoft! If you provide consumers with a high quality first-party experience, they might start to realize that we've been selling them shitware all along! Think Twice about this!!
- Karunamon 14y ago
  Yeah, this. OEM's whine about Microsoft pushing them out of the game, except they've been busily harming the brand and giving opponents ammo by selling crap hardware with crap software preloaded. You guys (OEMs) had roughly the better part of a decade to get it right. It should come as a surprise to precisely nobody that you're now being made irrelevant.
  - geon 14y ago
    I can't understand how OEM:s think it is a good idea to get paid to preinstall trial versions. When I pay for aproduct, I don't want to be treated as their property to be sold to advertisers. It's the same when I want to watch a movie trailer on the largest cinema chain here in Sweden. I have to watch an ad before I am allowed to watch the ad for the product they sell. It's ridiculous.
    - dman 14y ago
      You have not used a Verizon phone then I assume. Not only does it come with trial versions, you cant uninstall the trial versions either.
  - pm90 14y ago
    That's exactly right. It still baffles me that apple is the only company that makes laptops that are beautiful
    - kabdib 14y ago
      Well, it's a matter of opinion, but I think you're wrong. I've had a couple of ThinkPads that were beautiful in the same way that a tractor is. They just got stuff done. I have an Asus UX31 Zenbook that is fantastic, and it didn't come with any bloatware at all. (Sure, it's a blatant copy of a Mac Air, but they made improvements, too). Apple's principles get in the way. One button mouse, yeah right . . .
JoelSutherland 14y ago
Is there a company that better epitomizes the problems Microsoft has had over the last five years? Acer consistently puts out inferior quality machines made up of the cheapest components they can find. Then they install bloatware. Consumers are getting the picture too. Acer's revenues have fallen for six straight quarters. Acer shouldn't look for alternatives to Windows, (What alternatives!? I can't imagine what Acer would do to a Linux distro.) it should stop making bad products.
- powerslave12r 14y ago
  I don't see the problem. They are giving you the option of cheap hardware. A clean install fixes the bloatware issue. (Unless I'm overlooking that the hardware drivers are dependent on the bloatware for Acer laptops.) This is awesome for students. A clean install is what a lot of power users do on buying a bloatware ridden laptop. The main issue seems to be lack of knowledge for a majority of 'naive' consumer on how easy it is to do a clean install. (Maybe someone can make a 10thingstodowhen.com, if it doesn't already exist. This could not only include a list of things for '10 things to do when you buy a laptop' but other misc stuff like '10things to do when you install ubuntu 12.04' etc Currently such lists are scattered all over the place.) Edit: Looks like someone snapped it up :) Creation date: 07 Aug 2012 15:44:00 Expiration date: 07 Aug 2013 07:44:00 http://www.namecheap.com/domains/whois.aspx?domain=10thingstodowhen.com http://www.namecheap.com/domains/whois.aspx?domain=10thingst...
  - sazpaz 14y ago
    Most 'naive' consumers probably won't even try to solve the issue with bloatware. For many of them Windows implies having to deal with bloatware-full, cheap laptops.
    - powerslave12r 14y ago
      Which makes you wonder, would windows' image be better off if they implemented some sort of quality control on what is distributed? In the end when some bloatware crashes or slows the pc down, people blame windows. I know that that's windows' business model, but makes you think how much they would benefit from having a rock solid image. Just look at windows 7 for instance. It is a rock solid OS but that doesn't seem to have done a lot for microsoft's image. (Or maybe it has? Links welcome.)
brudgers 14y ago
Microsoft is leaving its options open by developing its own slate hardware. By doing so it will obtain direct feedback from consumers and distribution channels in order to choose between the two general long term strategies - keeping the hardware in house like Xbox or moving to a software ecosystem model like Windows Phone. When discussing Microsoft strategy, it is hard to over emphasize how long term their view tends to be. They spent a billion or more on Kin just to learn the mobile market. They spent billions on the Red Ring of Death to retain consumers. Its hard to recognize this philosophy because it is so different from the quarter to quarter strategies of the companies to which they are unfavorably compared - Wall Street would have thrown a tantrum if Apple had spent a billion on Ping in order to learn "Social". Just look at the heat Google took for Wave.
- mgkimsal 14y ago
  Spending a billion on something then killing it in under a year.... not sure how much you can 'learn' from that. And they can't do that forever (or even a lot). Spending, say, 15 billion over a year to 'learn' about 10 new ecosystems/industries - even MS can't sustain that pace for very long. And what did they 'learn' about 'mobile' that many of their employees (especially rank and file) probably already knew? There's usually far more cost-effective and less public ways to 'learn' about stuff without making your company look totally inept.
kitsune_ 14y ago
My mother once bought an Acer laptop. I've never seen a computer with more bloatware on it.
- powerslave12r 14y ago
  Did you see it after she used it for a week? /Sorry.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
mgkimsal 14y ago
I would really love for MS to get in to the full hardware game, both on tablets, but also maybe smaller phone-form devices and maybe eventually desktops/laptops. Let them create what they consider the 'best' MS/windows experience. It might bring some people back to the MS camp, assuming it's good (and I suspect it would be). The damage done to the MS brand over the past decade or so by manufacturers bundling crap on cheap hardware is enormous, and it may take MS either getting in to the hardware game directly, or tightening control over what can have Windows shipped on it, before we see a reversal of that. The same thing is playing out with Android - not sure why they didn't learn from the MS story. This is not suggesting everyone should always and only make their own hardware, but without sufficient quality controls in place, the brand gets tarnished pretty quickly.
- brudgers 14y ago
  "The same thing is playing out with Android - not sure why they didn't learn from the MS story." Who is "they" and will it be easier to get Android on the phone than it is to get Europe? The financial viability of Android does not depend on the quality of the user experience. Just on data collection.
  - mgkimsal 14y ago
    they = google (sorry). oh, and the data collection won't be as good if people don't use it as much because the hardware/software combos are subpar.
    - brudgers 14y ago
      I'm not sure it's any easier to get Google on the phone than Europe (in Kissinger's sense, not in the way we might apply it to smartphones). As for the second part, crapware increases data collection. That's one of the things that makes it crapware in a mobile context. It collects everything from location to the contents of one's video downloads.
  - Spearchucker 14y ago
    "They" would be the hardware manufacturers that load Android up with UIs that lower the quality of the user experience. And I would argue that the financial viability of any consumer device depends on the quality of the user experience. How much data will you collect if nobody buys your product because the competition is so much more usable? I would also argue that any consumer device manufacturer should consider the longer term, in which said consumers are becoming more educated in privacy and security. I mention those two because, amongst others, they're impacted by data collection and manufacturer apps that cannot be uninstalled.
fratis 14y ago
Sounds like a healthy relationship.
leke 14y ago
It sounds like MS hasn't gotten its way in the tablet and mobile OS market (by loosing to Android as the vendor choice), so it has tried to enter this end of the market itself. For the vendors to turnaround and say, stay off our new turf, or we might not choose your OS in the laptop and PC market is a ballsy move. This move by MS might be their final demise (fingers crossed).
- geon 14y ago
  To what OS would they turn instead? There is no real alternative.
  - leke 14y ago
    Linux is already a pre-installed choice for some vendors -- Dell for example.
Steko 14y ago
Acer basically dropped the ball on Tablets by firing their Italian CEO who wanted to invest heavily in touch and tablet design and double engineering staff. You reap what you sow JT Wang. http://www.cultofmac.com/94454/acer-former-ceo-trade-blame-for-low-end-pc-sales-slump/ http://www.cultofmac.com/94454/acer-former-ceo-trade-blame-f... The firm did not blame its sales slowdown on Acer chairman JT Wang, who in 2010 predicted the iPad share of the tablet market would plummet from 100 percent to 30 percent as soon as alternative devices appeared. So far, with Motorola, RIM, HP and others introducing rival tablets, the iPad market share still hovers around 80 percent. Acer also did not blame its sales slowdown on its own strategy reversal, first embracing the idea of volume, then rejecting it when the company’s founder, Stan Shih, announced a more Apple-like future. PC makers “should not single-mindedly pursue volume growth, and should extend its operation to the field of service, just like Apple has done.”

43 points by pietrofmaggi 14y ago

I smell fear. I am not a Microsoft fan-boy... far from it, but I have been wondering for years if Microsoft is ever going to drop the hammer and get some control on their software distribution by designing hardware with the intention of allowing the software to run as intended. For many years I watched the bloatware that totally ruined the user experience, especially at the turn of the century. Can Microsoft make quality hardware to compliment their software and in turn make their software feel "better" to the many of those who have turned away from it? They have the capital to figure it out. The only "huge negative impact" that I can see from this is pushing the hardware manufacturers to innovate harder and do better with the use and distribution of the software. It is going to thin the herd for sure. I think this is necessary for Microsoft to gain some control over the user experience. Yes, resellers and hardware manufacturers helped make Microsoft the huge corporation it is today, but the time has come. I think Microsoft only has to gain from this--if they do the hardware right.

bitdiffusion 14y ago
It's not like this is the first time MS have done the hardware/software combo (which has been pretty successful for them)... xbox anyone?
- Karunamon 14y ago
  That's an entirely different level though. A game console is a far different beast (with arguably a different customer base with wildly different expectations) than a general purpose computer. As it stands, the only company to have been successful in the consumer sector with that formula has been Apple. It'll be interesting to see if Microsoft can pull it off.
- sek 14y ago
  If the Surface is like the Xbox, Microsoft has a problem. The Xbox did cost billions and took years until it made a profit. When the Surface costs billions for years and at the same time Microsoft pisses off the hardware producers they will focus on Ubuntu/Android/ChromeOS devices. This would hurt the big cash cow Windows licenses and make Microsoft weaker than ever.
  - brudgers 14y ago
    Linux/Android/Chromium are not economically viable alternatives to Windows for hardware manufacturers on a large enough scale. On the consumer side it's "Not only is it not a Mac, it doesn't even come with Windows." On the commercial side it's, "Can it run Excel" - some things never change and Visicalc is still the killer application, so to speak. It is, in my opinion, a mistake to expect corporations to operate on the principles which drive persons. So long as Windows remains a profitable operating system for Acer, Acer will continue to install it. And that will continue to be the case unless Best Buy starts hiring Linux gurus for its sales floor.
  - jimfl 14y ago
    For the XBox model to work, apps will have to cost $40.
  - georgeecollins 14y ago
    Xbox did lose Microsoft billion(s) and take years to become profitable. But now it is profitable and one of their key products. They could lose billions on the Surface but they can also afford to lose billions. They have lost billions on terrible acquisitions in the last decade. I think it is better to spend the money on products that could help them be competitive.
    - technoslut 14y ago
      The Xbox 360 also had significant hardware problems that weren't alleviated until price did not become an issue for MS which is how it's always been on consoles.
- nodata 14y ago
  Or the Zune.
technoslut 14y ago
>The only "huge negative impact" that I can see from this is pushing the hardware manufacturers to innovate harder and do better with the use and distribution of the software. MS can't have it both ways unless they want to become Apple. You can't ask an OEM to innovate and take most of their profits away in a race to the bottom market. It's simply not fair. MS is going to have to make a choice in the future of who they want to become. They can't slam Google a year ago for what they are doing now. I'm not sure how MS can find a way out but they had better do so soon because the future is being decided during MS's conflicted beliefs and the risk is greater than just losing Windows dominance.
- tedunangst 14y ago
  MS is doing the opposite of a race to the bottom. They are raising the bar. Your product must this good to enter the market. Make something better than the Surface and sell it for a 20% margin, instead of the 0.2% margin the current crap makes.
- LockeWatts 14y ago
  MS can't have it both ways unless they want to become Apple. You can't ask an OEM to innovate and take most of their profits away in a race to the bottom market. It's simply not fair. Why not, exactly? As long as it increases Microsoft's profits, what prevents them from doing this?
hollerith 14y ago
>I have been wondering for years if Microsoft is ever going to drop the hammer and get some control on their software distribution by designing hardware with the intention of allowing the software to run as intended. But they did not have to decide to make their own hardware: they could have imposed controls on bloatware as a condition of OEM's licensing Windows.

ConstantineXVI 14y ago

Acer should be scared. I've already sworn them off after every Acer PC myself or a friend has owned in the past six years has failed in one way or another long before it should have. Anyone that knows how to make quality hardware has much less to worry about.

tokenizer 14y ago

I really hope the reaction by third party hardware partners is to start partnering with linux distros. It would be great to have cheaply priced computers as an alternative to the Mac and upcoming MS ecosystems.

uvTwitch 14y ago
For linux's sake, I'd hope they don't partner with Acer.
- tokenizer 14y ago
  Fair enough. They would most likely fill it with bloatware. I guess I'm hoping Lenovo and other reputable firms would start selling Linux boxes.
- rocky1138 14y ago
  What, you've never heard of Acix? /kidding

uvTwitch 14y ago

Please Microsoft! If you provide consumers with a high quality first-party experience, they might start to realize that we've been selling them shitware all along! Think Twice about this!!

Karunamon 14y ago
Yeah, this. OEM's whine about Microsoft pushing them out of the game, except they've been busily harming the brand and giving opponents ammo by selling crap hardware with crap software preloaded. You guys (OEMs) had roughly the better part of a decade to get it right. It should come as a surprise to precisely nobody that you're now being made irrelevant.
- geon 14y ago
  I can't understand how OEM:s think it is a good idea to get paid to preinstall trial versions. When I pay for aproduct, I don't want to be treated as their property to be sold to advertisers. It's the same when I want to watch a movie trailer on the largest cinema chain here in Sweden. I have to watch an ad before I am allowed to watch the ad for the product they sell. It's ridiculous.
  - dman 14y ago
    You have not used a Verizon phone then I assume. Not only does it come with trial versions, you cant uninstall the trial versions either.
- pm90 14y ago
  That's exactly right. It still baffles me that apple is the only company that makes laptops that are beautiful
  - kabdib 14y ago
    Well, it's a matter of opinion, but I think you're wrong. I've had a couple of ThinkPads that were beautiful in the same way that a tractor is. They just got stuff done. I have an Asus UX31 Zenbook that is fantastic, and it didn't come with any bloatware at all. (Sure, it's a blatant copy of a Mac Air, but they made improvements, too). Apple's principles get in the way. One button mouse, yeah right . . .

JoelSutherland 14y ago

Is there a company that better epitomizes the problems Microsoft has had over the last five years? Acer consistently puts out inferior quality machines made up of the cheapest components they can find. Then they install bloatware. Consumers are getting the picture too. Acer's revenues have fallen for six straight quarters. Acer shouldn't look for alternatives to Windows, (What alternatives!? I can't imagine what Acer would do to a Linux distro.) it should stop making bad products.

powerslave12r 14y ago
I don't see the problem. They are giving you the option of cheap hardware. A clean install fixes the bloatware issue. (Unless I'm overlooking that the hardware drivers are dependent on the bloatware for Acer laptops.) This is awesome for students. A clean install is what a lot of power users do on buying a bloatware ridden laptop. The main issue seems to be lack of knowledge for a majority of 'naive' consumer on how easy it is to do a clean install. (Maybe someone can make a 10thingstodowhen.com, if it doesn't already exist. This could not only include a list of things for '10 things to do when you buy a laptop' but other misc stuff like '10things to do when you install ubuntu 12.04' etc Currently such lists are scattered all over the place.) Edit: Looks like someone snapped it up :) Creation date: 07 Aug 2012 15:44:00 Expiration date: 07 Aug 2013 07:44:00 http://www.namecheap.com/domains/whois.aspx?domain=10thingstodowhen.com http://www.namecheap.com/domains/whois.aspx?domain=10thingst...
- sazpaz 14y ago
  Most 'naive' consumers probably won't even try to solve the issue with bloatware. For many of them Windows implies having to deal with bloatware-full, cheap laptops.
  - powerslave12r 14y ago
    Which makes you wonder, would windows' image be better off if they implemented some sort of quality control on what is distributed? In the end when some bloatware crashes or slows the pc down, people blame windows. I know that that's windows' business model, but makes you think how much they would benefit from having a rock solid image. Just look at windows 7 for instance. It is a rock solid OS but that doesn't seem to have done a lot for microsoft's image. (Or maybe it has? Links welcome.)

brudgers 14y ago

Microsoft is leaving its options open by developing its own slate hardware. By doing so it will obtain direct feedback from consumers and distribution channels in order to choose between the two general long term strategies - keeping the hardware in house like Xbox or moving to a software ecosystem model like Windows Phone. When discussing Microsoft strategy, it is hard to over emphasize how long term their view tends to be. They spent a billion or more on Kin just to learn the mobile market. They spent billions on the Red Ring of Death to retain consumers. Its hard to recognize this philosophy because it is so different from the quarter to quarter strategies of the companies to which they are unfavorably compared - Wall Street would have thrown a tantrum if Apple had spent a billion on Ping in order to learn "Social". Just look at the heat Google took for Wave.

mgkimsal 14y ago
Spending a billion on something then killing it in under a year.... not sure how much you can 'learn' from that. And they can't do that forever (or even a lot). Spending, say, 15 billion over a year to 'learn' about 10 new ecosystems/industries - even MS can't sustain that pace for very long. And what did they 'learn' about 'mobile' that many of their employees (especially rank and file) probably already knew? There's usually far more cost-effective and less public ways to 'learn' about stuff without making your company look totally inept.

kitsune_ 14y ago

My mother once bought an Acer laptop. I've never seen a computer with more bloatware on it.

powerslave12r 14y ago
Did you see it after she used it for a week? /Sorry.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

mgkimsal 14y ago

I would really love for MS to get in to the full hardware game, both on tablets, but also maybe smaller phone-form devices and maybe eventually desktops/laptops. Let them create what they consider the 'best' MS/windows experience. It might bring some people back to the MS camp, assuming it's good (and I suspect it would be). The damage done to the MS brand over the past decade or so by manufacturers bundling crap on cheap hardware is enormous, and it may take MS either getting in to the hardware game directly, or tightening control over what can have Windows shipped on it, before we see a reversal of that. The same thing is playing out with Android - not sure why they didn't learn from the MS story. This is not suggesting everyone should always and only make their own hardware, but without sufficient quality controls in place, the brand gets tarnished pretty quickly.

brudgers 14y ago
"The same thing is playing out with Android - not sure why they didn't learn from the MS story." Who is "they" and will it be easier to get Android on the phone than it is to get Europe? The financial viability of Android does not depend on the quality of the user experience. Just on data collection.
- mgkimsal 14y ago
  they = google (sorry). oh, and the data collection won't be as good if people don't use it as much because the hardware/software combos are subpar.
  - brudgers 14y ago
    I'm not sure it's any easier to get Google on the phone than Europe (in Kissinger's sense, not in the way we might apply it to smartphones). As for the second part, crapware increases data collection. That's one of the things that makes it crapware in a mobile context. It collects everything from location to the contents of one's video downloads.
- Spearchucker 14y ago
  "They" would be the hardware manufacturers that load Android up with UIs that lower the quality of the user experience. And I would argue that the financial viability of any consumer device depends on the quality of the user experience. How much data will you collect if nobody buys your product because the competition is so much more usable? I would also argue that any consumer device manufacturer should consider the longer term, in which said consumers are becoming more educated in privacy and security. I mention those two because, amongst others, they're impacted by data collection and manufacturer apps that cannot be uninstalled.

fratis 14y ago

Sounds like a healthy relationship.

leke 14y ago

It sounds like MS hasn't gotten its way in the tablet and mobile OS market (by loosing to Android as the vendor choice), so it has tried to enter this end of the market itself. For the vendors to turnaround and say, stay off our new turf, or we might not choose your OS in the laptop and PC market is a ballsy move. This move by MS might be their final demise (fingers crossed).

geon 14y ago
To what OS would they turn instead? There is no real alternative.
- leke 14y ago
  Linux is already a pre-installed choice for some vendors -- Dell for example.

Steko 14y ago

Acer basically dropped the ball on Tablets by firing their Italian CEO who wanted to invest heavily in touch and tablet design and double engineering staff. You reap what you sow JT Wang. http://www.cultofmac.com/94454/acer-former-ceo-trade-blame-for-low-end-pc-sales-slump/ http://www.cultofmac.com/94454/acer-former-ceo-trade-blame-f... The firm did not blame its sales slowdown on Acer chairman JT Wang, who in 2010 predicted the iPad share of the tablet market would plummet from 100 percent to 30 percent as soon as alternative devices appeared. So far, with Motorola, RIM, HP and others introducing rival tablets, the iPad market share still hovers around 80 percent. Acer also did not blame its sales slowdown on its own strategy reversal, first embracing the idea of volume, then rejecting it when the company’s founder, Stan Shih, announced a more Apple-like future. PC makers “should not single-mindedly pursue volume growth, and should extend its operation to the field of service, just like Apple has done.”