Introduction of Acer
Introduction of Acer
Acer ranks as the world's No. 3 branded PC vendor, designing easy, dependable IT solutions that empower people to reach their goals and enhance their lives. Established in 1976, Acer Inc. employs 5,300 people in more than 100 countries. Offering a complete range of laptops, desktops and peripherals, Acer has the right solution for all your home computing needs.
Market
Acer competes within the PC and peripherals industry providing a personal computing solution for consumers and businesses. Unlike competitors Acer offers alternate brands for different customer segments rather than one brand with many variables. This allows Acer to maintain margin for each brand without cannibalization.
Most brands within the PC industry offer one brand. However, as demonstrated in the strategic group map (see side panel) out of the top 5 brands only Acer offers different brands for different segments. While Acer takes a middle ground in terms of pricing and reputation (but also covering the ‘premium’ and ‘low’ end of market), other brands trade on a lower or higher pricing offers dependent upon their market segment. For example, Dell takes a price leadership position, whereas HP and Lenovo take a higher price position. The key aspect is that Acer stands alone as compared to competitors in offering a range of brands that target various segments.
There are also substitute players such as Apple introducing devices such as the iPhone and iPad that will challenge the need for a PC for some consumer segments. There is also a lot of power in suppliers with 85% of all laptops being produced by Taiwanese manufacturers in Chinese factories who supply the entire industry. If these suppliers decide to forward integrate into the value chain, especially by using the internet to sell their products, this could mean a serious competitor to all PC companies.
Internal Analysis
In a SWOT analysis the key points for Acer are:
Strengths
* Three tiered pricing structure
Acer ranks as the world's No. 3 branded PC vendor, designing easy, dependable IT solutions that empower people to reach their goals and enhance their lives. Established in 1976, Acer Inc. employs 5,300 people in more than 100 countries. Offering a complete range of laptops, desktops and peripherals, Acer has the right solution for all your home computing needs.
Market
Acer competes within the PC and peripherals industry providing a personal computing solution for consumers and businesses. Unlike competitors Acer offers alternate brands for different customer segments rather than one brand with many variables. This allows Acer to maintain margin for each brand without cannibalization.
Most brands within the PC industry offer one brand. However, as demonstrated in the strategic group map (see side panel) out of the top 5 brands only Acer offers different brands for different segments. While Acer takes a middle ground in terms of pricing and reputation (but also covering the ‘premium’ and ‘low’ end of market), other brands trade on a lower or higher pricing offers dependent upon their market segment. For example, Dell takes a price leadership position, whereas HP and Lenovo take a higher price position. The key aspect is that Acer stands alone as compared to competitors in offering a range of brands that target various segments.
There are also substitute players such as Apple introducing devices such as the iPhone and iPad that will challenge the need for a PC for some consumer segments. There is also a lot of power in suppliers with 85% of all laptops being produced by Taiwanese manufacturers in Chinese factories who supply the entire industry. If these suppliers decide to forward integrate into the value chain, especially by using the internet to sell their products, this could mean a serious competitor to all PC companies.
Internal Analysis
In a SWOT analysis the key points for Acer are:
Strengths
* Three tiered pricing structure