With the PC market continuing to decline, computer vendor Acer Philippines is shifting its focus on becoming a more solution-centric tech company.
At a recent media briefing with officers of the IT Journalists Association of the Philippines, also known as Cyberpress, Acer Philippines country manager Manuel Wong pointed out that the company is not just focused on the PC business.
“We’re now more focused on solutions, the vertical market, like in education, promoting the digital classroom,” Wong said, adding that Acer will soon announce its cloud computing strategy.
“Consumers should have the power to choose, use content among all gadgets. They should be able to do their own cloud,” he said.
“Some say the PC will disappear. It will not die, it will just keep changing,” Wong said.
Preliminary results from research firm IDC showed that the Asia Pacific PC market declined eight percent sequentially and 11 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2014 to reach 23.8 million units.
Asus even replaced Acer at the fourth spot with China contributing most to Asus’ share gain in the region. Lenovo, Dell, and HP retained their first, second and third spots respectively.
Approaching its 11th year in the country this May, Wong said Acer has been closely monitoring the challenges of the IT industry for the past three years.
He noted Acer held the PC notebook crown in the Philippines for more than five years.
In less than a year, Acer launched its Acer Academy program, made the Vibal Group as its education partner, and lately introduced the “Acer IT Doctors,” a team of IT specialists tasked to guide IT consumers by giving answers and recommendations to all kinds of IT-related queries.
The Acer Academy program enables an educational institution to assemble the appropriate hardware, applications, and network setup that will best serve their system of education.
Acer uses both portable and fixed devices to create the digital classroom setting, merging the mobile and traditional computing experience. Among these devices are desktops, notebooks, tablets, and projectors.
Meanwhile, Acer said it also authorized Vibal last January to resell its products to the education sector, especially to schools with mobile learning education programs.
Vibal’s business involves offering technology solutions for education, enterprise, and the government.
Wong said the Philippines is one of the fastest growing economies and Acer remains positive on the growth of the local IT industry. “We will be part of the driving force behind this growth,” he said.
Acer also recently launched the Iconia W4 2-in-1 touch netbook with full version of Microsoft Office 2013. It’s an 8-inch touch-screen device bundled with a portable full-sized Acer crunch keyboard.
The Iconia W4 runs on Microsoft’s Windows 8.1 and powered by Intel Bay Trail 1.33Ghz CPU and LPDDR3 106Mhz 2GB. It also has pre-installed full versions of Microsoft Office Home and Student 2013 edition, which includes popular Microsoft applications such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel, and OneNote.
