First day of the Consumer Electronics Show brought a preview of what Acer has in mind for this year. The company has released, among others the Ultrabook, said to be both an iPad and MacBook Air rival.
Although 2011 was mostly a thriving year for companies in the IT business, the cut-throat competition has been an issue for some, resulting in slower sales and a lower brand visibility. To some extent, it is the case of Acer, which kind of struggled in 2011 because of declining PC sales. As a result, the company has decided to rethink its strategy and to focus on a different category of customers.
Thus, Acer developed new products and services that will manage to boost sales. Its new Ultrabook model is advertised as the thinnest model yet and based on several functions, it can easily become a rival both for Apple’s iPad and MacBook Air.
The 13.3-inch Acer Aspire S5 ultrabook measures 15 millimeters thick and will have 8 hours of battery life. The company used the MagicFlip I/O port panel to be able to keep the laptop slender and still include several I/O ports. By one push of a button, the back of the laptop expands by about a centimeter, allowing you access to ports for HDMI, USB 3.0 as well as Intel’s Thunderbolt networking technology.
According to Acer CEO J.T. Wang, the ultrabook series revenues are expected to account for 25 percent to 35 percent of all the company’s laptop deliveries for this year.
But, AcerCloud should really get the spotlight, as the company enters a market Apple and Google are already running. The official press release points out that Acer’s cloud service allows users to “create, acquire and consume on different devices”. Basically, you can take a photo on your smartphone while having drinks with friends and then check it out on a main PC, both at home and in the office, without manually transferring your file.
The service features three categories: PicStream, AcerCloud Docs and clear.fi Media. Although this service isn’t yet available, Acer promises its service will reduce “the complexities of today’s fast-paced lifestyles” and will securely connect “all personal smart devices for anytime, anywhere access”.
