And there we have it. It had been a while since Acer executives opened their mouth against Microsoft solutions, but now we finally have some more choices words for Windows RT from the hardware maker.
The past few months of silence from Acer included the launch of Aspire R7 laptop (all-in-one, as a matter of pure fact), along with their newest tablet, the Aspire P3.
But despite this, the company’s president, Jim Wong, has been one of the fiercest critics of not just Windows 8, but even Microsoft’s hardware ambitions in general. Ever since launch of the new operating system, Acer has publicly knocked on what it believes is a wrong strategy by Redmond.
And now talking to CITE World, Wong claimed in an interview that Windows RT has no value. If anything, the company is waiting for the next release of Windows RT (Windows RT 8.1, codename Blue, by the way) to chalk out a new strategy for the platform:
“The plan for an RT tablet is ongoing. To be honest, there’s no value doing the current version of RT.”
The latest market numbers suggest that Windows RT devices have not been doing as well as Microsoft (and by that extension, hardware vendors) thought it would. In fact, IDC says that the Windows RT platform only captured 0.4 percent of all tablet operating systems in the first quarter of 2013.
Nevertheless, the Acer president expects that Windows 8 slates will soon make up 25 percent of the company’s total tablet sales.
In fact, the Acer boss believes that the Surface lineup of tablets from Microsoft caused a fair bit of distraction for the Windows 8 tablets ecosystem, and one of the reasons Windows 8 itself had as slow start. But the good news is that everything is back on track now, at least according to Acer.
Really. I bought a very big screen Acer laptop just over a year ago. I found out features listed on their U.S. website and Newegg’s product page weren’t actually supported in the U.S. After several weeks of waiting for out of stock parts from a third party, I was able to add in the second drive, and enable a feature that Acer declined to honor. I’m really quite certain I’ll never buy another Acer product. I won’t miss their participation in a product that has some amazing potential. Remember Acer, the wrath of a disgruntled and disappointed customer takes about five good customer experiences to overcome.
Acer have always been a disappointing brand, so their no-show with regards to Windows RT (and Windows 8 to some degree) is no great loss. Acer products do have a reputation for poor quality devices, with poor reliability, and even worse support than most – so I’d rather they stay out of the game completely.
Lately, if I read a headline like “Acer says…” I am always interested to see what that joke of a CEO has to say that week. Considering they built their business off Windows PCs (usually in the lower-cost, consumer segment), I find it amazing they are so anti-Microsoft at the moment. Bite… hand… feeds.
With regards to RT devices, isn’t it funny how they dribble on about Chrome OS, and ChromeBooks (always connected, effectively useless web-browser toys), yet ridicule a much BETTER OS, that can also be made available on low-cost devices, that is ultimately MORE useful than other tablets. Acer are idiots.
Acer have always been a disappointing brand, so their no-show with regards to Windows RT (and Windows 8 to some degree) is no great loss. Acer products do have a reputation for poor quality devices, with poor reliability, and even worse support than most – so I’d rather they stay out of the game completely.
Lately, if I read a headline like “Acer says…” I am always interested to see what that joke of a CEO has to say that week. Considering they built their business off Windows PCs (usually in the lower-cost, consumer segment), I find it amazing they are so anti-Microsoft at the moment. Bite… hand… feeds.
With regards to RT devices, isn’t it funny how they dribble on about Chrome OS, and ChromeBooks (always connected, effectively useless web-browser toys), yet ridicule a much BETTER OS, that can also be made available on low-cost devices, that is ultimately MORE useful than other tablets. Acer are idiots.