Acer's mutation: The escalating PC revolution

Experience the personnel concussion Acer, how to face the PC industry change?　　This reporter Wang gang from Beijing global PC market "runner-up" Acer personnel changes, shook the PC market. March 31, the day before April Fool's Day, Acer announced the company's president and CEO Gianfanco Lanch will resign, Acer Group chairman Wang will temporarily serve as CEO of the company.　　Soon after, Acer China also announced more than 100 layoffs. Acer was finally forced to make the big changes after two consecutive quarters of results were less than expected. Acer's founder, Shih, also said that Acer should focus on boosting profitability rather than sales growth, the world's first, tablet and smartphone trends have been "shaped", tablet computers, mobile phone products have become mainstream.　　He said last year was Acer's 10th year of reinventing two, and he had a feeling that he needed a new reinvention.　　1992, 2000 Two after the reconstruction, Shih will lead Acer to complete the 3rd time reengineering.　　Acer, Acer, said the reason for Lanci's resignation was that Lanci's view of the company's future development was different from that of most of its directors, and that it had not been able to reach a consensus after months of communication.　　These differences include "business size, growth rate, customer value creation, brand positioning promotion, resource allocation and implementation of the importance of the way."　　Industry analysts believe that the two consecutive quarterly decline in performance and tablet computer strategy is not conducive to the cause of lanci resignation. In the past two quarters, its performance has not been up to expectations. In the fourth quarter of 2010, Gartner and IDC showed that Acer's notebook shipments were below expectations and are now being surpassed by Dell. PC sales fell 10% per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of this year.　　Revenue fell by as much as 35.6% per cent in January-February. Lenovo has also been "coveted" by the world's top three, and has recently formed a joint venture with NEC, Japan's largest PC maker, to try to reverse the situation. The gap between Lenovo and Acer was slim in the fourth quarter of 2010, with a global market share of 10.4% and 10.6% respectively, IDC data showed.　　A year ago Acer's share was 12.8%, leading Lenovo 4%.　　According to data, Apple's profit margin was 21.5% in the latest fiscal year, with Acer only 2.3%. Xiaodong, general manager of the world information, said that the traditional PC market profit has been close to "ceiling top", and as Acer's focus on Europe and the United States market demand continues to decline, Acer is under pressure, "the space for industry innovation is getting smaller, chips and operating systems in the hands of Intel and Microsoft, hardware manufacturers can only work on the appearance, and the keyboard　　, the appearance and so on these things are standardized, the innovation space is small ". "PC makers have been taking the path of economies of scale, who is more efficient than the purchase volume, in addition to the appearance and accessories, in essence there is no difference, homogeneity serious, this game is more efficient and cost control of the supply chain, once the demand for trial production decline, this mode of competition has met the challenge.　　"Xiaodong said.The mobile internet has become another "nightmare" for Acer.　　Apple's ipad led to a whirlwind of tablet computers, a year after the launch of the ipad, when Acer released its first tablet computer product and has yet to go public.　　Consumer electronics expert Wang bin has always believed that the netbook is a transitional product, "Acer used to focus on acquisitions, expand market share, thus forming a scale effect to reduce costs and achieve the world's second market position, but in the mobile internet era has produced a miscalculation." "When the tablet came out, Acer's main focus was on netbooks, which even AMD did not recognise as a future, no market," he said.　　"Wang Bin said that the reverse of Lenovo's music phone and Le Pad is as a group strategy to promote, do very early, regardless of whether there is no technical strength, must first in this area layout." At the moment, tablets are still pounding and eating into the netbook market. Sales of netbooks fell another 34% in January this year, according to NPD data, following a 36% decline last December.　　Gartner, a market-research firm, has lowered its total global PC shipments this year to 10.5% from 15.9% before.　　Acer's chief financial officer, Du Zhemin, said Acer is planning to appoint a new chief executive with extensive experience in mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers this month.　　But Acer's mobile internet route will be "crowded" when many PC makers and mobile phone makers flock to the launch of Tablet PCs and smartphones. Acer has undergone two modifications before rebuilding Acer.　　It happened at the end of last century, at that time, Shih with the "McDonald's fast food model" to Taiwan parts manufacturing based on the overseas market for product assembly, brand Marketing center, the transformation of the supply chain, successful breakthrough overseas brand blockade; another occurred between 2000 and 2002, when Acer stripped off its manufacturing and franchise brands.　　In the face of the crisis, Acer said it would increase profit margins and invest more in smartphones and tablet computing. "The focus is on boosting PC sales and draining resources from Acer's burgeoning smartphone and tablet sector."　　"Wang admits Acer is ignoring the mobile internet business," We have to change our business strategy and not rush to the world's first sprint. "PCs will remain the core business of the company," Wang said. will continue to expand the business, especially the business PC business. In addition, Acer will enter the emerging mobile device market, where companies will invest prudently and aspire to become industry leaders. "Industry analysts believe that the demand for PCs in Europe and the United States continues to decline, and the acceptance of tablets is much higher than other markets."　　Therefore, the development of emerging markets represented by China is the only way for Acer.　　According to Sadie data, 2010 China market PC sales in 21.12 million units, increased by nearly one times in 2009, and the global PC market growth has been hovering in single-digit numbers for many years. Acer China told the Times weekly that LanciThe resignation has little impact on China, and Acer China will continue to follow its robust and localized development strategy, including the integration of founder PC business into Multi-Brand, "go to market" strategies.　　And will be released in April in China Android3.0 Honeycomb system Tablet PC Iconia Tab A500. "We will also invest in brand building and channel expansion in the Chinese market," he said. 2011, our marketing investment in the Chinese market will reach 80 million dollars.　　"said Acer, China's relevant head.　　Ahrens, president, said Acer has the advantage of traditional PC makers to quickly bring sophisticated technology to tablets, such as HDMI, high-speed interface, high-speed wireless transmission and other technologies that make it more comfortable for users to use a tablet computer. "Although there are already Android 2.X tablets appearing on the market, only the honeycomb system is the first operating system that Google has designed for a large-screen tablet," he said.　　The Acer Chinese leader said the upcoming Acer tablet would be the best product.　　PC Revolution in the PC "Twilight" period, like Acer, the manufacturers have embarked on a transformation of the road. HP has stepped up its transition to software and services through a company takeover and the appointment of former SAP CEO Leo Apotheker as CEO. Palm, which was bought in May 2010 for $1.2 billion, allowed HP to launch its mobile phone palm Pre2, which carries operating systems WebOS2.0, last October.　　After that, HP, who sits on its own operating system, says it will apply the webOS system to devices such as PCs, smartphones and tablets, as evidenced by the ambitions of unified.　　Dell is also looking to transform from a PC and server manufacturer into a fully-functioning it product and service provider. Lenovo transformed Mobile Internet more thoroughly. Follow Apple's launch of Le Phone and le pad, self-built operating system and App Mall.　　Lenovo Group chairman Liu said that at this stage of the PC industry is a life and death moment, do not change will sudden death, Lenovo will be "desperate to invest in the mobile internet market to stand firm."　　It is clear that Acer's transformation and reengineering will not be "smooth sailing". "Mobile phone manufacturers have the advantage of natural mobile portable devices, which is not comparable to traditional PC manufacturers, Acer is a typical hardware manufacturer, software is not strong enough, unlike Motorola did a long time system, have experience and manpower."　　"Wang Bin Analysis, formerly a single product competition, and mobile Internet is an ecosystem of competition, that is, operating system competition." "In particular, Apple's ipad price, the market has been disrupted, the tablet preferred Apple, followed by other brands, now everyone is robbing the second camp."　　Wang Bin said. "First, the mobile Internet is a whole industrial chain of the ecological environment, involving many links, and the past to do PC has Wintel system, operating system and chip joint degree is very high, but the structure of the tablet computer is not mature." Second, the tablet computer to the user bodyHigh requirements for inspection, manufacturers need to work hard. Third, the application of the mall to become a standard tablet, especially the need to integrate resources, manufacturers need to invest a lot of effort to do, it will take a long time to explore.　　"Former Lenovo Software division VP, one person COO Fang that PC manufacturers to transform mobile internet will be difficult."　　Relatively Hu Hongyu, Wang bin more optimistic about the transformation of HP, "HP has its own web OS, but Acer lacks its own system, it is difficult to make a difference, more difficult to blockbuster". Wang bin believes that the decline in PC growth rate is the root cause of the collapse of the Wintel Alliance. "Software development requirements and hardware development requirements have not been matched, do not match, Intel, Microsoft can not drive the industry chain to allow users to throw away the old exchange, which led to a slow product replacement." "" PC manufacturers are OEM manufacturers, the development of technology has no leading role, must rely on the development of upstream Wintel Alliance, Intel's profit margins, the market can not be controlled, the PC market will have problems. For example, Intel is not yet able to integrate with mobile technology. "Wang Bin said that the future PC manufacturers may follow Qualcomm" mixed ", so that a larger change will appear, the current PC manufacturers will face continuous performance pressure.