Get Your iFad While It’s Hot
August 5th, 2011 - 11:51 am
If he means it, I hope you’re not long on Acer:
Acer founder Stan Shih has commented that the fads for ultrabooks and tablet PCs are both short-term phenomena and urged companies in the notebook supply chain to come out with more value-added products through innovation.
Acer is best known for selling lots of cheap PCs that nobody really wants, but can afford. Pretty much the Dell of Taiwan.
I don’t view my Touchpad as a replacement for my computer (which at about 7 years old needs replacing anyway.) Rather it’s complementary. When I travel I don’t want to lug a laptop around, especially when mostly I’m going to be surfing the intertubes. Generally, I’m not going to be producing documents or spreadsheets on the road — most of my traveling is for vacation.
Plus I want to get used to e-readers. Working in a library, e-books are only going to become more popular. My 75 y.o. dad loves his Nook.
1- Miami University buys (maybe “bought;” I haven’t been up there in a while) only Dell machines, except for the English department folks who like Apples. Their systems worked just fine.
2- Acer makes good LCD monitors, if you aren’t fixated on a lot of bells & whistles.
It does sound like he has a poor grasp of the market dynamic. I suppose the question is whether tablets/netbooks will replace desktops/notebooks, or supplement them. Right now I’m saying supplement, but either way they’re not a fad.
If I were still in college, I would almost certainly get a netbook instead of a notebook, unless you show me I could take notes easily & efficiently on an iPad. The latter would be wonderful if universities provided electronic texts, instead of printed.