"Enjoy it While it Lasts iPad" says Acer CEO

[Jeff Campbell]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20101129/acer-ceo-plans-to-make-the-ipad-look-like-a-newton/' target='_blank'>http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/...-like-a-newton/</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Two years. Three at the most. That's how long Acer CEO Gianfranco Lanci figures it will take his company to overwhelm the iPad and commandeer Apple's early lead in the tablet PC market."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1291160494.usr105634.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>Bold talk indeed, but stranger things have happened I suppose. I don't think he will accomplish this though:&nbsp;<em>"We hope our tablet PCs can reach a global market share of 10 percent to 20 percent initially, and become the market leader in 2-3 years."&nbsp;</em></p><p><em></em>When you take into account that Apple's iPad has over 90% of the tablet market now, the tablets coming from Acer would have to be a dramatic leap forward, in my opinion, to get people to switch. And to switch, or convince them to buy in such numbers as to achieve their goal above would be incredible indeed. It certainly won't be from lack of trying, as Acer is certainly planning on throwing a lot at the iPad in hopes that something with stick. They are coming out with one 7-inch and two 10-inch tablets, one running Windows 7 and the others running Android. They may run into the same roadblock that the Galaxy Tab is running into, where 85% of consumers prefer the iPad over the Tab according to this <a href="http://www.loopinsight.com/2010/12/02/85-percent-of-consumers-prefer-ipad-over-galaxy-tab/?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed:+loopinsight/KqJb+(The+Loop)" target="_blank">article</a>.&nbsp;</p><p>Granted, they will get their buyers, but bold statements such as the one above can, and usually do, come back to bite you. But one thing is for sure, the tablet market is about to get a lot more crowded. What are your thoughts?</p>

[Jason Dunn]

Acer can probably create a really solid hardware solution....but what about the app ecosystem? That's the real driving force, and one that Acer will be hard-pressed to overcome.

[Michael Knutson]

Wow - pretty ballsy statements, coming from a company that is barely staying afloat. I've had one Acer netbook, and it was pretty bad. I do hope that they do well, as competition is great for the consumer, but those are some pretty brash words ...

[Joe Johaneman]

Acer doesn't have to convince anybody to switch. There are plenty of people who have yet to purchase a tablet. They can sell plenty of their tablets without making a dent in Apple's sales.

Apple has 90% of the tablet market because it is a nascent market that they revolutionized. The same thing happened with the iPhone. At one time, it was really the only smartphone aimed at consumers. Now there are plenty, and while Apple sells more iPhones than ever, they are still losing market share to Android. It doesn't mean that they are selling less. It just means they finally have competition in the same space; a space that is still open to a huge amount of growth. There will be plenty of tablets as well, since it is also a market open to a huge amount of growth.

While I'm not convinced Acer is going to grab any significant chunk of the market, I am sure that eventually some Tablet OS will arrive that will give Apple some serious competition (I'm not sure Android Honeycomb is that OS. I'm expecting something interesting from HP with the Palm acquisition, but I'm always weirdly optimistic about anything having to do with Palm).

[Jason Dunn]

Apple has 90% of the tablet market because it is a nascent market that they revolutionized.

Well said. Some media pundits like to talk about markets being closed to new competition, but that's rarely the case - and it's especially not the case when you're talking about a new form factor like a slate/tablet. Apple is simply the biggest fish in what is currently a very small pond. That pond is growing bigger every month, and more fish are jumping in...

[Sven Johannsen]

Well said. Some media pundits like to talk about markets being closed to new competition, but that's rarely the case - and it's especially not the case when you're talking about a new form factor like a slate/tablet. Apple is simply the biggest fish in what is currently a very small pond. That pond is growing bigger every month, and more fish are jumping in...
Not sure tablet/slate was actually a new form factor. They existed with Windows XP on them. Problem was desktop hardware of the age struggled with XP, so you wound up with a horribly underpowered unit, (HP TX series) or a beast (Motion). If my slate weighed 4 pounds, I might as well carry a laptop. The available products weren't that compelling, so it seemed the form factor wasn't desireable. Apple seems to have come in when the hardware tech could support a reasonably sized slate, and opted not to saddle it with a full OS, meaning OSX, at a time when media was all the rage.

[Jason Dunn]

Not sure tablet/slate was actually a new form factor. They existed with Windows XP on them.

It's not a new form factor, it's the form factor + OS. The iPad is the first device the blends the two without the need for massive compromise. All the years of struggling with slates running XP is evidence of how much the compromises suck. Look, you can invent the first car and get credit for that, but if your version only gets 1 MPG, well, you're not going to get many people buying it.

Apple doesn't really invent anything: they wait until the technology matures and market forces are primed for their advertising engine to go into overdrive and sell the hell out of their product. But, thing is, their products are usually quite excellent, assuming you can live within the tight confines of what Apple deems acceptable usage scenarios. :rolleyes:

[Rob Alexander]

It's not a new form factor, it's the form factor + OS. The iPad is the first device the blends the two without the need for massive compromise. All the years of struggling with slates running XP is evidence of how much the compromises suck. Look, you can invent the first car and get credit for that, but if your version only gets 1 MPG, well, you're not going to get many people buying it.

Apple doesn't really invent anything: they wait until the technology matures and market forces are primed for their advertising engine to go into overdrive and sell the hell out of their product. But, thing is, their products are usually quite excellent, assuming you can live within the tight confines of what Apple deems acceptable usage scenarios. :rolleyes:

I'm still amazed by how much I love this iPad given my general antipathy for Apple. (My employer bought it for me as part of a trial. I would have never spent that much for an 'oversized iPod Touch'... before.) The reason I am surprised is that, by any list of features I could make, it lacks many things that are important to me. By any such list, it would be a mediocre device. But it isn't; it's a brilliant device and the reason is that, what it does do, it does intuitively and effortlessly and with amazing attention to detail. In my mind, it really is a new form factor -- not literally in the way you and Sven mean it -- but in the sense that using this device feels nothing like using a Tablet PC. The touch UI is natural and intuitive and it ends up feeling more like an extension of you than like using a computer. So I'm with Joe on this being a nascent market. People are not buying these for the same reasons, or to use for the same things, as people who bought Tablet PCs.

[Jason Dunn]

People are not buying these for the same reasons, or to use for the same things, as people who bought Tablet PCs.

Agreed 100% there. The market for the "old style" tablets was never a very big one...you had to be pretty hardcore about touch/pen computing to put up with the hassles, the weight, the size, the lack of speed, etc. I never bought a tablet PC for all those reasons...