“US computer brands may be gone in 20 years’ time due to an inability to produce the low-priced PCs the market demands, the Taiwanese founder of computer maker Acer was quoted as saying Tuesday,” AFP reports.
“‘The trend for low-priced computers will last for the coming years,’ said Stan Shih, high tech entrepreneur and founder of the island’s leading personal computer brand according to the Taipei-based Commercial Times newspaper. ‘But US computer makers just don’t know how to put such products on the market… US computer brands may disappear over the next 20 years, just like what happened to US television brands,'” AFP reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Dell? Sure. HP? Probably. Apple? iCal’ed. See you right here on Saturday, January 19, 2030, where we’ll be serving Stan a heaping helping of crow.
Acer may by gone in 2 years…!
They won’t be gone if they find ways to add value to the computer experience the way Apple has.
As commodity dealers (what is the difference between a Dell or HP, honestly?) they have been knifing each other to death for years.
Meanwhile, Apple has excelled. There are lessons to be learned.
Perhaps Stan meant…
US Windows-based computer brands may be gone in 20 years.
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I would agree with him if Apple weren’t in the market. There were no innovative TV companies that gave you a better user experience or features that you couldn’t get anywhere else. And nobody was saying that a US TV brand topped the charts in customer satisfaction and support.
Perhaps no one will even be calling them “computers” in 20 years. That term is so last century.
What makes this clown think that anyone will be making PCs in 20 years?
Note that even Apple Inc. dropped the word “computer” from their corporate name. With OSX, Apple stands alone on strong foundation. With only Windows, Acer too, could become a casualty of the race to the bottom.
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I think Mr. Shih’s dick is going to fall off within the next 20 years. Opps, sorry, already did, along with his balls. Acer is so incapable of doing anything original and are bottom feeders. For that he is proud? Glad to see America business ideas are flowing right to Taipei!
@ MDN–
Who sets the iCal to see if you’re still here in 2030?
Wow, this guy is amazing. He’s not taking into account how different consumers are regarding technology now vs. the TV era. And he’s practically saying that computers or computing as a whole isn’t going to change that much.
He can start eating his words next week I’m sure.
If I’m still surfing MDN in 20 years, somebody kill me.
“Gone” is a relative term. Compaq is “gone”, because HP gobbled them up. Acer may still be around in 2030 in strictly a spiritual sense. As an example, Toshiba gobbles up Acer, Lenovo gobbles up Toshiba, HP gobbles up Lenovo – is Acer still alive?
Child labor and sweatshops are illegal in the USA.
20 is an unforeseeable future for this type of thing. Most companies are not successful for that period anyway. Compare Apple’s “future” in 1975 to 1985 to 1995 to 2005. Nothing was predictable.
20 YEARS
It’s not just child labor and sweatshops. It’s that workers there have yet to organize, and so are being paid a relative pittance. When workers there decide they won’t accept the situation where they can’t afford to buy the products they make, when workers there demand what we would call a “middle class” life, then the huge wage difference between us and them will disappear. Of course, by then, manufacturing will simply move deeper and deeper into what we lovingly call “the third world.”
I think China will get too expensive for manufacturing for multinational corporations (as it already has for the US, Japan, S. Korea and much of Europe). By 2030, Acer (and its ilk) will likely be assembled in places like Central Africa and Bolivia.
There’s a difference between US brands made or assembled in the US and US brands that are not. Apple is in the latter category. It thrives because of its perceived value and very rich gross margins. Some who lack such margins will try to consolidate just to survive. And some will simply be sold off. Compaq is already gone, as is IBM, which sold their PC operation to Lenovo. For some, there will only be a name to be acquired by others. Think Packard Bell.
Back on it MDN. Great take.
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Hell, in 20 years North America will be under a mile or so of ice and snow.
Of course there will be no American computer makers.
Writer fails to mention that while most computers are built overseas, they’re built by contractors for U.S. companies and powered by software written in the U.S. Don’t see that changing anytime soon. Linux has been around for how long, and how many times has Apple changed the paradigm? Past performance is not indicative of future results.
With this business approach and attitude, I’d say Acer is probably the company most likely to be out of business in 20 years.
Stan Shih can be in Steve’s sights next.
I’d like to see Acer in 20 years. I may eat crow on this one, but unless quality comes WAY up, they won’t be. Acer has always been and will likely always be the epitome of junk PC brands.
20 year?! A lot can change in 5 years, let alone 20 years, when it comes to tech… twenty years ago, an 80 MHz computer with 32mb of RAM and 500mb hard drive at the leading edge.
Apple’s success proves there is a market for something other than cheap computers.