Acer Touts ‘Affordability’ in New Lineup of PCs, Tablets

At a worldwide unveiling of its back-to-school lineup in New York Tuesday, Acer took the wraps off nine competitively priced PC products, with plans to follow with a second round in time for the holiday season. After four months at the helm of the troubled company, CEO Jason Chen spoke of Acer’s ambition for a “turnaround” based on volume driven by “value” and “affordability.”

The company’s woes continued into Q1, said analysts at Gartner. While first-quarter worldwide PC shipments overall totaled 76.6 million units -- a 1.7 percent decline from the year-ago quarter -- Acer’s numbers were well below the industry’s, at negative 14 percent, Gartner said. Acer’s PC shipments worldwide fell to 5.6 million in Q1 from 6.5 million in Q1 2013, it said.

The trophy model of Acer’s 2014 lineup is the 2.58 pound Aspire Switch 10 ($379), which Chen billed as a “4-in-1” computer for its different use cases in laptop, tablet, movie and display modes, but which really fits into the 2-in-1 PC category as a hybrid notebook with detachable tablet. The 10.1-inch Switch 10’s standout feature is its Snap Hinge with a magnetic detachable design, which allows users to detach the tablet with “one peel-off action” versus a typical three-step removal process with other two-in-one designs, Chen said. The 64 GB Windows 8 device also features an IPS (in-plane switching) display and an Intel Atom quad-core processor, according to specs, and it comes pre-loaded with Microsoft Office Home & Student, Acer said.

In the laptop category, Acer bowed two new 11.6-inch 1366 x 768-pixel models in the Aspire series, with and without touch displays. The PCs, available in Celeron and Pentium quad-core versions, feature fan-less design and the touchpad is said to have improved pinch-to-zoom and smoother scrolling than previous models. Both are based on a new FlowCurve design said to create a “visual flow,” and the models come in four colors. Prices start at $269 for the Aspire E 11 and $369 for the Aspire V 11 with touch. Both ship in June in the U.S., Acer said.

Larger laptops from Acer include 14- and 15-inch models with fourth-generation Intel Core processors, Nvidia GeForce 800M series or AMD Radeon R-Series discrete graphics and up to 1 TB of storage, Acer said. The laptops include a 10-point multitouch screen for tap, swipe and pinch functions, and the touchpad supports six core Windows 8.1 touchpad gestures said to reduce unintended tap and cursor motions. Acer said the supplied “chiclet” keyboard offers “deeper keystrokes” and well-spaced keys that provide “solid tactile feedback” and quiet typing. Prices start at $299, with shipping in June in a choice of six colors.

Acer is attacking the tablet market with a 7-inch model starting at $129 for consumers “on a budget.” The Android 4.2-based Iconia One 7, available in 10 colors, has a 1280 x 800 display with IPS that can be upgraded to Android 4.4, Acer said. Battery life is given as 7 hours, and shipping is in June.

At the high end of the PC line is Acer’s Aspire U5-620 (starting at $999), an all-in-one PC with a dual-array microphone, 1080p webcam and a wide field of view for allowing several family members to participate in a Skype chat, the company said. The display is adjustable and the unit includes Dolby Digital Plus Home Theater.

Acer brought in journalists from around the world for the event, which it called “A Touch More Connected” to emphasize its targeting of the Gen Y audience. “Connectivity defines this generation,” said Chief Marketing Officer Michael Birkin, saying the segment will make up 75 percent of the global workforce in the next three to five years.

A key part of the Acer connectivity theme is its Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) message that the company launched last December. The concept was to transform Acer from a hardware company into a “hardware plus software plus services player” through apps, it said. All Acer PC and mobile products are to be designed in line with the BYOC vision, so users can “build their own cloud on Acer devices,” according to the mission statement. Maverick Shih, president of Acer’s BYOC and tablet business, said Tuesday that BYOC is “cross-platform,” and supports iOS, Windows 8 and Android products, as long as one device in the chain is an Acer product. The majority of PC users have their data -- music, videos and photos -- on a PC so BYOC makes a user’s PC “a data center without giving your data away to someone else,” Shih said.

Also part of the product introductions Tuesday was an Android-based smartphone and a companion smart wristband with a display that shows fitness and lifestyle readings and messages, Chen said. Neither product has a U.S. launch date, but the 5-inch phone with Gorilla Glass, called Liquid Jade, and the Liquid Leap smart wristband are due in select international markets as a bundle at the end of July or early August, the company said. Acer said it’s in talks with customers in the U.S. wireless market and would have more news on that front but the phone will launch “in the rest of the world first.”