Acer finding its bearings after management, product issues

04.06.2012
Acer lost its direction in the past few years amid management, product and supply chain issues, but the company is working its way to get back on track, company president Jim Wong said.

"In the last three or four years, we lost focus," Wong said during an interview at the Computex trade show in Taipei. The old management team started to talk about market share and in the process lost focus on innovating and solving customer problems.

"We want to go back to the old days" and talk about products, Wong said. "Gradually we are coming back because our organization is stabilizing."

Acer peaked as the world's second-largest PC maker in 2010 and early 2011, but has been losing market share to rivals Lenovo and Dell since. Acer's market position tumbled after a slowdown in sales of netbooks, a market ruled by Acer.

A management shakeup in March last year resulted in the outing of Gianfranco Lanci as the company's CEO, triggered by a difference of opinion on how aggressively Acer should shift its focus from consumer PCs and pursue mobile devices. The company has also been dogged with supply chain issues such as mismanagement of inventory in the Europe, Middle East and Africa distribution channel.

The netbook sold well early on, but slowed down as it did not fulfill its promise as a mobile Internet device, Wong said.