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Acer Pulls Back From Windows To Focus On Android and Chromebook
SmartAboutThings writes "More bad news for Microsoft: Acer is apparently rethinking their Windows strategy, planning to offer fewer Microsoft products and focus more on products delivered by Redmond's rival Google, in the form of Chromebooks and Android devices. This comes after Acer's second-quarter earnings call, where the Taiwanese company posted a surprise second-quarter loss, having unexpected lower sales and rising expenses. Acer's change of plans comes not long after Asus' CEO announced that the company would no longer make Windows RT products until Microsoft proves there's real demand."
Microsoft really dropped the ball with RT. That is the problem. They really should have added some PC Compatibility for some legacy systems. Sure you don't need to go back to windows 95 apps. But being able to run any .NET applications may have made it useful.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Every time I read a story about the failure of win8\RT I am greeted by an involuntary image in my mind of Balmer piloting the Hindenburg, and the disaster that followed. It amazes me that he is still in charge.
Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
So they are pulling out of one pointless OS (WinRT) and focus an another even more pointless OS (ChromeBook).
When will they ever learn?
The reason why they are focussing on the chromebook is because its selling. In fact its the fastest growing part of an otherwise lackluster PC Market. The fact that it loosens Microsoft Grip on them is a massive bonus.
I've been an Acer user for two generations of laptops at this point, and in each case, I bought it to run Linux. I know I'd certainly have liked to not pay the Microsoft Tax on 'em.
That said, why do you have such a problem with a "browser OS" as you call it? If there's one thing I noticed when I went back to school a while back to finish a degree, it's that most students could certainly have gotten by with nothing but this so-called "browser OS".
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
Having just bought a (Samsung) Chromebook, I think you ought to try one. It's considerably cheaper than either a real laptop or a (full size) tablet. Unlike cheap laptops, it has an 8 hour battery life, can't get a virus and boots in 10 seconds. Unlike a tablet, it has a 13 inch screen and a typeable keyboard. It has a ton of hidden functionality if you figure out how to access it. Yes, it only runs a browser, but I can get my email in a browser, edit documents/spreadsheets/presentations in a browser, access Evernote and similar services, etc. It won't replace my main computer, but it works great as a travel device.
"Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
Given that (in terms of vendor margins, and thus price elasticity under hardball negotiations) MS licenses are probably the most flexible component that goes into a Wintel box (with Intel CPUs being the other one), any negotiation strategy that works at scaring MS a bit is probably worth a great deal of money indeed.
HDDs, RAM, passives, OEM assembly sweatshops, plastic mouldings and metal stampings, are already cut to the bone, so being able to tell scary lies to Microsoft is probably worth as much to a PC OEM as amazing expertise in JIT supply chains or other elegant re-engineerings of the actual manufacturing and distribution process.
For the last 20+ years, companies have made hardware for whatever Microsoft was making, because it was the gravy train.
Now all of a sudden they're realizing they're footing the bill to make products focused around Microsoft stuff, and that isn't always working for them if the stuff Microsoft is making nobody is interested in. In fact, it has become a liability in some instances.
The manufacturers have more options these days, and if the Microsoft products aren't selling, they can make more money by focusing on the Android and other stuff.
So Microsoft really needs to pay attention, and learn that they need to better understand what it is people want and why -- because there is increasingly not as much certainty that a MS product will sell, and if you're sitting on your laurels collecting revenue from OS and Office upgrades, you will get overtaken.
Their tablets aren't doing stellar, their phones aren't nearly as popular, nobody seems to like Windows 8, and they've pissed off everybody with the XBone -- and while they may be entrenched in corporate environments and likely to stay there, at the consumer level, they seem to be foundering.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Unless of course, they keep running with their blinders on.
Like refusing to reinstate the start menu on Windows 8.1 and forcing that metro crap instead of listening to their customers?