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Acer CEO Declares a Tablets Bubble
retroworks writes "According to a story in Digitimes, Acer chairman JT Wang is predicting the end of 'tablet fever.' 'Commenting on tablet PC's impact on the notebook industry, [Acer chairman JT Wang] pointed out that tablet PC fever is already starting to cool down and consumers are also being attracted by notebooks again with Intel's Ultrabooks and Microsoft's Windows 8 the major attractions.' Back to the old model then... PC and laptop sales, driven by Windows upgrades?"
Is he talking about iPad fever or lame tablet/netbook fever?
If the former, he can wait until Apple's next quarterly results. If the latter, well, he's probably right. Maybe he's talking from his own sales numbers?
Just because you haven't found a personal need/use for a tablet, doesn't mean the millions who've bought them (iPads and the dozen or so Xooms and Galaxy's out there) haven't. The CEO of Acer sounds like he's trying to make noise because Acer isn't in the competitive tablet business. In fact, nobody is in the competitive tablet business at this point, except Apple. And all signs point to it not slowing down anytime soon.
The misunderstanding here is that people have to choose one or the other. I prefer a desktop for programming, a laptop for browsing leisurely about the apartment, and a tablet for reading in bed. Once the price bubble on tablets bursts, I am sure more people will buy them as a handy tertiary device, between a phone and a laptop.
ketchup!
(see, that has no relevance to the article either)
While manufacturers that have failed to grow a userbase that lets them compete with Apple may wish for tablets to be a bubble, I feel they're ignoring a new segment.
I have never purchased an apple device, bar an old 5G ipod in the past. When I saw Jobs present the iPad I could immediately see the utility. It doesn't compete with my laptop or my desktop. I use it in places my laptop doesn't work well. Say on the sofa, or in the kitchen. I can grab it and look something up while walking around. I can take it when traveling and use it to read news, watch video and still get emails or even remote desktop / ssh if needed.
When HP liquidated their touchpad stock I grabbed one of those too. The iPad's app store is certainly a huge draw, but $100 is easily worthwhile for the web browser, video player and email. The trouble for the manufacturers who aren't Apple is that while $100-$200 is easily justifiable for that device, at the $400-500 price point folk want an iPad, mostly because of the Apps.
The touchpad doesn't have a Netflix client. I can't fathom why HP didn't just pay Netflix to develop it, as it would easily have helped drive sales. I'm pretty sure they could have partnered with Amazon too for video and music services. At the moment, every non-apple brand of tablet is a compromise, yet there's no discount on price to reflect this. As a result, their userbase remains small and the apps remain undeveloped.
Unless someone really tries to compete with Apple, either by offering a better product at the same price point, or a similar product at a discount, tablet sales will continue and only one manufacturer will benefit.
One company just had the highest quarterly sales in their entire history.
The other company just lost a few million dollars.
Which company do you think has a better clue about what consumers want?
I don't think it has anything to do with that, plenty of people have found uses for tablets. I think it has more to do with the fact that they're reaching market saturation at their current price points. They're still just a little too expensive for the mainstream to really start getting into them. Wait until they're priced like the HP fire sale tablet and you will see them exploding into use, and as more people have them there will be more development, functionality added in....just like with any platform, whether hardware or software.
Once it gets to the point where people are throwing old tablets in drawers like they do with their old MP3 players and cell phones, I'll say yeah, the fever has passed.
Were I a significant shareholder of Acer, I would be calling for the replacement of JT Wang. His comments have consistently shown a disconnect from reality and that is not the sort of person one should want directing a corporation. Closing your eyes and pretending things are the way you want them to be rather than how they are isn't a sound business strategy.
I realize that he shouldn't be a cheerleader for the competition but he's gone beyond that and is well into the realm of ignoring facts that are clear to anyone paying even a cursory attention to the market.
In its most recent quarter, Acer lost $234 million. Acer has no competitive tablet offering among the dozens of competing Android tablets. And of course the iPad is selling like mad with an expectation of 22 million units sold during the upcoming holiday quarter.
The Acer CEO is a dimwit who's talking smack because there's nothing else he can do to stem the tide of abject failure coming out of his factories. He is basically berating the customers for buying "hot" tablets, particularly the iPad, instead of buying the tried-and-true plastic Wintel units that Acer vomits up. His company bet big on low-margin netbooks and lost, and now he's betting on Intel "ultrabooks".
HP just bailed out of the entire PC business (echoing IBM's decision in 2004), and among the reasons was that the tablet effect is real.
The Acer CEO's effort is better focused on coming up with better products, not whining.
Always the same ridiculous assertions from people who don't understand how useful tablets are and can be. The idea that there's no reason to buy a tablet except because I want to be trendy is just absurd. I've completely replaced my laptop for all mobile computing with an iPad. I write emails, read books, do work, make money, travel and consume entertainment on it. My laptop has left my desk maybe twice in the last year and a bit (since the iPad 1 was released). There's no Apple fever. There's a desire to get away from devices that aren't suited to the task at hand (which the laptop is for most of my mobile computing needs). If I want or need a keyboard I can keep a bluetooth keyboard around or get an eePad Transformer which is a rather nice device because it's the best of both worlds (though I still find Android to be a very confusing and clunky OS). For 9%% of my mobile computing needs I don't need an attached keyboard. In fact a keyboard is an active hindrance. Have you ever tried to read something in portrait mode on a laptop? Have you ever tried to scrub through a quicktime movie while holding a laptop with one hand on a busy film set? Yeah. No thanks. I'll take the tablet.
Nobody's been able to compete with Apple in this domain yet (though I'm certain in a few years they will manage it) so they're crying sour grapes and declaring the market dead. Uh huh. Riiiight.
Before last weekend, I would say it's a fad and will eventually die out within a few years. Then I saw my grandfather using a iPad, that was eye opening. He's 90, been partial paralyzed for 15 years after a stroke so he can only use his left hand. He's never really use a computer and doesn't understand the concept of the Internet. My uncle had brought the iPad to show my cousin's white coat ceremony photos. After showing my grandfather how to open the Photo App (it's the sunflower icon), selecting which album he wanted to see (Graduation, Family Photos, etc.), moving the next picture by swiping your finger, and zooming in and out with pinching, under 5 minutes he was able to do all that and had a blast. I haven't seen him amazed by technology, ever. We've try to get him to use a computer, that didn't work.
There's something here in tablets, not as a computing platform. It's a communication medium for the other 5 billion unconnected humans. It should be a seamless experience with the absolutely the lowest learning curve possible.
Tablets were never going to sell like they were forever. We're approaching the point where most people who want them, already have them. That doesn't mean they were a fad or a bubble. Without looking at sales figures, I would guess that all major inventions, from the Model T to the microwave oven to the MP3 player have gone through a similar cycle. They will continue to sell as people upgrade or replace aging units, but not at the rate they once did. It's a huge win for Apple that they got in at the ground floor. All the "me too!" companies now have an uphill fight on their hands. The Acer CEO likely knows this, and so is declaring the grapes to be sour.
I know a CEO like this. He had to have a Macbook Pro and a Macbook Air and now he wants all the sales people to have iPad's because nothing else is acceptable except the device with the most elit image even if it is significantly harder to manage and for the users to operate for there tasks.
Sure, and we all have stories about Stupid CEO tricks. In fact, I believe there is a long running comic with that as it's primary gag line. But that isn't the only reason that iPads are popular. They are popular primarily because THEY ARE NOT LIKE THE COMPUTER YOU FIRST PROGRAMMED IN 6TH GRADE BY CANDLELIGHT WHILE HIKING BAREFOOT UPHILL IN THE DARK. I'm constantly amazed at the angst this device has created amongst the Slashdoterati. You all sound very threatened about a 1 pound device that, according to the hive mind here, can't process it's way out of a recycled paper bag.
Calm down, switch to decaf or something. Take a walk. It's something different, an 'uncomputer', an appliance. It doesn't fortell the end of the universe, it isn't George Orwell's worst nightmare.
Jesus, you'd think there was an earthquake or something recently.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Says the bitter, bitter man who has never touched a iPad....
Stop being a grumpy old turd and go TRY ONE for a while. Honestly, I am 30X more productive than the guys at work that dont have one. I carry autocad files with me to review and show. I annotate pdf files etc...
It's a tool, just because you cant figure out how to use a wrench does not make wrenches stupid.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I guess it hasn't been proven scientifically that wishing doesn't work... Good luck with that, Mr. Wang!
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
My Xoom is nearly indispensable now that I have come to rely on it. I work in the medical industry and to be able to carry 90% of the functionality of a laptop with better battery life and a smaller form factor is just incredibly useful.
Exactly, no scope for the imagination.
The medical field has needed this type of tech for eons and now it is here in a form that is quite functional.
It is fantastic for entertainment functions.
It is fantastic for educational functions.
Each day I hear of people using these devices in new ways... ways a computer simply can't do.
Kindle is a ripoff?
I don't think so for what it does.
Ever buy about 10-12 books.... = the price of a kindle.
Ever carry 10-12 books= 100 times the weight of a kindle.
I didn't know "prays" was spelled "d-e-c-l-a-r-e-s"
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
The thing is convertaibles have been around for a decade.
it took apple to show the world that tablets had to have a different GUI from desktop computer. MSFT has been making tablet based OS's for a decade directly, however only a couple of dedicated touch applications where ever created for it, with Office being one of the big one.
when apple shipped the ipad it included a stripped down(and broken depending on your view) version of their office applications. straight out of the box. The email client gui was re written to take advantage of touch interfaces, unlike outlook which is still the same(with a shiny new ribbon)
tablets may become more powerful, but the interface requires them to have simplier UI's. Just like cars engines might get more powerful but you still control it with pedals and a wheel.
We are entering computation age where raw power isn't needed. directed computation power is. for those like you stuck in the past you will struggle with this change.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
Sad but true.
Citation needed.
Metallica - The Black Album
I'm a grizzled old neck-bearded software and science guy who is so old he actually used punch cards in a production environment (until we switched to 8-inch floppies!) and I think the iPad is a peach of a device.
There are only two reasons I don't have one:
1. I think they're cool as hell, but I don't think they're 500 dollars cool. And for the model I'd really want (with 3G+Wifi), I REALLY don't think they're 630 dollars cool.
2. I was part of the Apple faithful for years, but got screwed over royally on a Pismo laptop that I paid $2,200 for back in 2000 that Apple refused to fix/replace. Apart from a couple 2nd gen iPod Nanos I bought my wife and son 5 years ago, I've been very leery of purchasing from them again. Maybe that's unfair, but hell, it's my money.
Why do people think this is a good insult. It isn't. The first thing I thought when I saw the iPod touch was, "This is neat, but it would be really cool if it was way bigger."
The iPad IS a large iPod Touch, and that is a good thing. Your complaint makes about as much sense as complaining that the 50" TV is just an over sized 13" TV.
Right, and your Xoom isn't a "tablet PC", it's a tablet.
If your Xoom was double the thickness, double the weight, and double the price, would it compare favourably to the current Xoom? The Acer CEO's remarks are amusing because the tablet PC never had a bubble to burst. They were always a tiny niche market that never went anywhere, until real tablets like the iPad, Xoom, Galaxy Tab, etc. came along.
I'm no fan of Apple, but to compare the very small tablet computing market that existed prior to the iPad with the market that exists now is absurd.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
My Xoom is nearly indispensable now that I have come to rely on it. I work in the medical industry and to be able to carry 90% of the functionality of a laptop with better battery life and a smaller form factor is just incredibly useful.
Lawyers are another demographic I have seen tablets gaining massive ground in. Phones have to be shut off in the courtroom, and have a nasty habit of blaring noise at random moments if they're still on... whereas a tablet with a data-only cellular connection doesn't have this issue, and is usually excused from the "no cellphones" rule because it doesn't look like a phone.
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I have an iPad, and I use mine almost every day. In the past week I've been streaming Merlin episodes off Netflix, reading Sherlock Holmes off iBooks/Kindle, I use it to check my calendar/email before going to bed. I plug a noise-canceling headset in and watch movies on it on the plane (I've had to travel a dozen times this year, so >25 flights), which is nice in coach because laptops are too bulky really (especially if the guy in front leans back). Plus it's a really convenient way to check/offline read documents, which I can drop in dropbox, sync over to the ipad without a wire, and then read (on the plane, in the hotel bed, etc). (Also, Angry Birds HD, go.)
Honestly, I called it a gimmick when it first came out. A week or two after launch, I happened to swing by an Apple store, we played with one, we decided to get it. Now we have 3 in the family (one each), and all 3 of us use it regularly.
Granted, to me, about 50% of the utility is the video - Netflix + iTunes shows/movies (I don't pirate, but I also don't pay for cable, so I supplement netflix with an occasional itunes purchase).
There is another tablet market and that is of course the eReader http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-book_reader market. Basically the tablet is a content consumption device, with a teensy bit of interactivity and form filling thrown in.
Acer doesn't want to get into the content distribution market, and Amazon's Kindle is just crap in comparison.
So Acer is likely right, the tablet PC market has passed it fad moment and the big fight will be on for a more functional and colourful table eReader, subsidised by content distribution. Now the real question is will the major content distribution empires jump into the fray, a free fully featured tablet with a two year subscription contract to their whole media empire, including archived content. They have got the content and they can tell Apple et al to go jump and basically distribute direct.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
I agree that tablets cannot replace computers. But ask yourself two questions:
Are people expecting them to replace computers?
How many people actually need computers?
Computers were wonderful for a while since they enabled rapid technological innovations and people wanted access to those innovations, but I think we're eventually going to see people ditch computers for devices that are more suited to their needs.
(Yes, I know that tablets are computers. But I would also suggest that a lot of people don't see them as computers.)
Do you really want to know why? It's because HTML sucks for a user interface. It always has.
No, really. Back in the day, we had fat clients that did specific things; they did them fast, and the did them well. Then came the web as user interface ... and quite frankly, it has sucked donkey balls for most of it.
Oh, sure, it's gotten better. But, really, the difference between a native app and a web application has always been miles. A native app is faster, cleaner, and generally does things you can't really do in a web page.
And, yes, I'm sure HTML 5 is wonderful and likely even makes toast for me. But, it's largely a moving target: and a well designed, native application will pretty much always give you a better piece of software to interact with simply because the GUI works differently. It also has the added benefit of being something I can run when I am disconnected from the network.
An app isn't a marketing gimmick ... back in the day, we used to call it 'software'. The world as a web page? Now there's something which has made for more crappy (and slow) software than you can think of.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
We have been pretty close for a while now. Latest Eee PC 10 inch netbook I bought as a gift for my mother runs for slightly less then 8 hours on a single charge (battery can be replaced in ~10 seconds), while running all x86 applications (atom n550). My only qualm with it is lack of XP (it had w7 starter), but after I upgraded the RAM size to 2GB it seemed to work really well. It's about the same size as 10 inch tablets in all dimensions but thickness (thin on the user's side, but thickens toward the screen where battery is) and about twice as heavy (1.25kg).
Of course it comes with actual x86 native compatibility, standard laptop connectivity, keyboard, touchpad, etc. It even has built in bluetooth so it can be used as a smartphone remote or to connect wireless speakers/headset.
It also costs about half of what ipad does. I honestly have no idea who would pick a tablet over netbook if ultraportable is what they need, unless it's a public image issue (which is what most people I've seen with tablets seem to be getting them for).
I think it's silly to compare your PC with a tablet. It's a little like me saying your pickup truck will smoke my Miata. They have a lot of similarities and can do a lot of the same kinds of things, but they were built for entirely different uses in mind. Your truck is what you need and I couldn't be happier in my Miata. It turns out though, that not many people need a truck.
I think a lot of computer people don't understand the iPad and are worried about what it is doing to the PC industry. It really is disrupting the PC business in unbelievable ways (and is a big part of what has HP looking to dump their PC business). There are a lot of people out there who got a computer to get on the internet and they really aren't all that happy with it. Those people are being attracted in droves to the iPad. For these people, the iPad isn't the accessory, the PC is. They only need it for iTunes right now and soon that won't be an issue any more.
As a programmer, I see the iPad as a huge opportunity. For whatever reason, people who have them are purchasing software for them. Much more than they ever did with their PC. People use these things all the time online and off. It's the best thing to happen to this industry in a long time.
I'm so impressed at how well Apple is executing lately that I've reversed my opinion on their stock price. When the stories about them becoming the most valuable company by market cap started surfacing I thought that was a great signal for people to dump Apple stock. It's ridiculous, right? Now I'm not so sure. They own the market for desktop and laptop computers that cost more than $1k. Now they are totally screwing up the low end of the computer market for everybody with the iPad. What they've done to the music and phone business, I believe they are about to repeat with other home electronics (like an Apple television). There's a very real chance that Apple is just getting started.
If you travel a lot, that's great... but it is just a gimmick for most people. I honestly don't see the point in watching a movie on a smartphone, pad, or even a computer without a giant monitor and great surround sound... sure, if I'm stuck on a plane it's one thing, but if I'm at home it makes no sense. I can't use it when I commute or when I'm sleeping... 90% of the rest of the time I'm either at home with access to my PC or at work. Even when I go out... honestly, as a computing professional, the last thing I need in a bar while playing pool is another computer.
So it's reasonable to see that there are certainly people who can get a lot out of them, but for most people all they get is a "wow" factor, especially if you've already got a smart phone.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
They have got the content and they can tell Apple et al to go jump and basically distribute direct.
At which point, the cash-rich Apple will buy out huge chunks of their industry (Apple could buy Comcast, Time Warner, Disney, or the entire music industry with the cash they have now), leaving big content with disastrously incomplete catalogues.
It any case, I think you're wrong in your assumption that tablets are or will remain content-consuption devices only. I think phones and tablets will soon be most people's main computer. They will dock them with big screens and keyboards when they want to work on something that requires it.