By Rumors were apparently running rampant that Acer would quit the smartphone and tablet game cold turkey but it’s not true according to the company themselves. Acer states that they will continue to attempt to break into the fast-growing tablet and smartphone markets, though it won’t pursue the frequent release model that we’re seeing major manufacturers have a little success with.
They’ll be going the Apple route, opting to deliver only a few devices each year. Compressing a portfolio in this manner not only saves Acer money from streamlined R&D processes, assembly processes and more, but it allows them to focus on creating quality devices. That’s not to say that you can’t get quality with a ton of quantity but Acer isn’t quite exactly Samsung financially.
It’ll be interesting to see where they go next, though we’re not so sure they’ll be able to separate themselves from the competition using this model. They’ll have to do a lot of special things so all eyes are on Acer for a great 2012. [via The Verge]
I think these manufactures could do a lot better if they listened to the developer community!
Fewer releases per year is not a bad thing as long as it brings additional benefits such as greater software support, higher quality product etc. It’d be a shame if there was only a single release per year for a single device as that device is unlikely to cater for all markets. Possibly a single release for each type of phone e.g. business user phone, high end gaming/media centric phone, budget phone, mid-range phone etc. This at least gives Acer a chance to compete better with the likes of Apple who do not cater for every market area. However, if we get fewer releases but the software support for each device stays at the rubbish levels they are now then I’m afraid that is a lose lose situation. There were a number of manufacturers that signed up with Google to commit to 18 month support for each device which sounded great at the time but I’ve still yet to see this as a consumer. Software support is still extremely slow and some devices are not getting updates at all.
Acer’s A500 is a great product with more focus it would be the best android tablet on the market. Hopefully they will focus on getting it ICS.
Just got my wife an A100 for Christmas (189 at BestBuy on Black Friday). She’s loving it so far, and it seems like a quality device. My only complaint so far is no USB charging, but that’s kind of my fault for not doing the research. I’ll look into getting a car charger, since she wants to use it for day planning.
I think Acer has a big problem. They have to keep the price down in comparison with the big name manufacturers, but face some stiff competition on the value end from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. That pretty much leaves value conscious customers who are fond of a stock android device and don’t want to be tied to a specific vendor.
A+ To Acer. Maybe if the other companies took this sales model we wouldn’t see so many defects in the phones being shipped. From bleeding screens, to dust under the display, to broken GPS, to a million other little hardware quirks that never get resolved because they’re only interested in pushing the next phone; all of it could be resolved by fewer yearly releases. I’m truly worn out on getting defective devices.