When it comes to the brand Acer, I have a mix feeling, but I still stand in my resolve not to recommend this brand to others. Years of experiences in the computer and electronics retail sector taught me that Acer’s brand has never been reliable, despite the dirt cheap price that they manage to offer. However, the board of Acer isn’t happy with this, and urges the company to take some lessons from Apple and HTC. This leads to the by-then CEO of Acer Gianfranco Lanci resign due to disagreement with the board members.

Gianfranco Lanci’s strategy to fight against the other ‘classy’ boys is to aggressively increase volumes and using its scale to negotiate cheaper prices from suppliers in a race to steal market share from Dell and HP. According to data compiled by Bloomberg, Acer’s profit margin in the last fiscal year was just 2.3 percent compared to Apple’s 21.5 percent, scarce to say the least.

Acer’s main business comes from selling dirt cheap desktops and notebooks, and now with Lanci gone, JT Wang, Acer’s chairman and temporary CEO, plans to put more effort into expanding its smartphone and tablet business while broadening efforts around enterprise sales. For Wang, Lanci’s departure marks a break with the past, saying “Recently the iPad [tablet computer] and other new form factors have had a very big impact on the PC market. We have to change our business strategy.” While PCs will still be core to the business, Wang said “we won’t be in a hurry to change to become the world number one.”

SOURCE via Bloomberg