Acer head says hybrid slowdown only ‘temporary’

THE head of Acer’s Asia-Pacific operation has defended the company’s promotion of hybrid computers.

Acer has released the cheap yet large 15.6-inch Chromebook 15 starting at $US250.

THE head of Acer’s Asia and ­Pacific operation has defended the company’s promotion of hybrid computers, saying they are “the darling of the industry”.

Oliver Ahrens, president of Acer’s pan-Asia-Pacific regional operation, said the detachable ­2-­in-1’s or 4-in-1’s that morph between a tablet computer, laptop and other display modes had snared up to 10 per cent of the mobile PC segment in most markets. although their increase in take-up had been slowing recently.

Mr Ahrens, who heads Acer in China, Taiwan and the Asia-­Pacific region including Australia, said the slowdown was “a temporary phenomenon” and the overall share of hybrids would continue to grow.

“We believe that the combination of ‘create’ and ‘consume’ is still highly attractive. Consequently Acer is going to address that with additional (hybrid) models to be introduced in 2015,” he told The Australian.

At last week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Acer announced a cheap yet large ­15.6-inch Chromebook that starts at $US250 ($307). It is the biggest Chromebook to date.

It also announced new smartphones, notebooks, PCs and ­peripherals, although it is yet to confirm how much of this tech will come to Australia.

“We are still working on the Australian positioning, but we are going to hit attractive spots for sure,” Mr Ahrens said.

He said the 15.6-inch Chromebook would be available in Australia in Q1 and cost about $400 here. He said Aspire V15 and V17 Nitro gaming Notebooks were just been introduced in Australia, costing about $1200-$1500.

These would be followed by the Aspire V17 Nitro Black Edition, which made use of Intel’s new ­RealSense 3D camera. Intel prominently showcased the camera at CES. The V17 Nitro Black would cost about $2000, Mr Ahrens said. The camera system ­offered 3D scanning and modelling, and came with a high-end Intel Core i7-quad core processor.

At CES, Acer also showcased its new Liquid Jade S, a lightweight 116g 5-inch LTE smartphone, with a 64-bit Octocore CPU. There was no indication of Australian availability.

Mr Ahrens said Acer would also introduce a powerful entertainment centre targeting the living room.

To blend in with a stylish home theatre environment, the Acer Revo One would feature a cubist design with polished, glossy finish, aesthetic lines and rounded corners. It would be available in black and white.

Configuration included Intel i3 and i5 CPUs, up to six terabytes of storage, Raid 5, 4K resolution, and HDMI and USB 3.0 ports. Users could also store and share documents, pictures and music in Acer’s private cloud and there were ad hoc streaming apps for Android and iOS devices.

Acer would also release new ­X-Series 27-inch gaming monitors comprising an IPS display with 178-degree wide viewing angles.

Mr Ahrens said Acer would sell its smartphones in Australia. “You will see Acer phones in Australia. We are currently evaluating the market and having talks with ­potentials partners,” he said.

“Our priority for 2015 is to strengthen our position as a ­leading PC brand for Australian consumer and commercial customers. However, I am optimistic that we finalise our go-to-market strategy for smartphones this year.”

He said despite its relatively small size, Australia was one of Acer’s strategic markets in the Asia-Pacific, with its well-­developed commercial and retail channel structures.

“Acer usually moves successfully in these kinds of market environments. Further, the Australian market still shows interesting potentials as a total PC market and especially for Acer,” he said.

“Our target is to cover the full range of price and product segments from $300 budget solutions to $2000 high-performance platforms, and from 4.5-inch smartphones to 100-inch display solutions.”

He said Acer was making its first steps on wearables with fitness wristbands, and home automation was one of its key focuses in research and development.

“Another interesting segment is the ‘smart classroom’ concept, enabling students and tutors to ­interact in a fully connected and integrated environment from managed mobile clients like Chromebooks over intelligent content management to inter­active projection or whiteboard solutions.”

Chris Griffith travelled to CES in Las Vegas as a guest of Acer, Sony and Samsung.