Acer CEO JT Wang says a number of the Acer products will soon see the axe-- the company plans to slash its product portfolio by two-thirds in 2012 as it hopes to increase sales by 10% Y-o-Y.
As Digitimes reports, Acer has "simplification plans" that should take around 3 years to complete. Wang says the plans will not affect outsourcing volumes to upstream ODMs, but Acer partners (including Quanta and Compal) decline to give comment at time of writing.
If DigiTimes is correct, such plans confirm Acer's moving away from appealing to the cheaper ends of the market (the approach under ex-CEO Gianfranco Lanci) towards improved inventory management and hopes for profitability.
According to Gartner, Acer lost the top EMEA PC vendor spot in Q3 2011 (with market share down to 13.6%), with EMEA profits crashing by -39.3% Y-o-Y.
Wang also says Wintel will beat Apple and Google in 2012, as ultrabook price reductions will lead the platform to "a phase of surging growth." The Acer CEO expects Apple growth to weaken over the next 2 years, while Google will only achieve flat performance within PCs.
Go Acer to Downsize Product Lines by two-thirds, Says Chairman (DigiTimes)
