Acer CEO Vows to Be Last PC Man Standing

Acer may not always get the recognition it deserves in the United States, but around the globe, Acer sells more than 100,000 different products every day in more 160 different countries.

Acer recently launched a raft of notebooks (including a model that sports break-resistant Gorilla glass that Apple made famous in the Apple iPhone) as well as new Chromebooks, tablets and, for the first time, a smartphone.

Launched in advance of the pending release of Microsoft Windows 10, most of these systems are aimed at shoring up Acer’s dominant position in the education market in the United States. While Acer is a dominant force outside the United States, inside the U.S. market, Acer has focused most of its corporate business efforts on a few narrow segments.

Nevertheless, Acer CEO Jason Chen this week vowed that, because of the global scale of its operations, Acer will be the last man standing not only a in the cutthroat PC business, but will also be one of only two companies that are actually profitable selling smartphones.

In short, Acer is spoiling for a fight against Lenovo, Dell and Hewlett-Packard that will have a significant impact on solution providers across the channel. Acer is committed over the long haul to use its manufacturing muscle to deliver innovative products at price points that will be a challenge for rivals to match.

Of course, everybody sources their PC components in China these days, so just how much Acer can bring its manufacturing muscle to bear remains to be seen. In addition, within the U.S. market, the scope of its operations is still relatively narrow.

Acer has the potential to be a force to be reckoned with that solution providers across the channel should be keeping an eye on as the PC market continues to be one of the most cutthroat segments of the IT industry.

Michael Vizard has been covering IT issues in the enterprise for 25 years as an editor and columnist for publications such as InfoWorld, eWEEK, Baseline, CRN, ComputerWorld and Digital Review.