Gateway's Acer In the Hole
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Acer's acquisition of Gateway is good news for Microsoft. The new entity will bring more channel facility to a major US direct-PC manufacturer. |
Acer and Gateway announced the acquisition, valued at about $710 million, this morning. The combined entity will be larger than Lenovo, which until the merger closes is the world's third-largest PC manufacturer.
Acer has long had deep channel heritage, even as some other manufacturers pushed direct sales. The approach helped make Acer a household name across the globe, even if its brand commands must less luster in the United States. But US resellers and system integrators—hawking everything from monitors to mice—know the Acer brand.
The channel is much stronger in many other countries, where local resellers and dealers are often the major means by which PCs, software and peripherals are purchased. Acer's channel ties overseas are strong, which is good for channel-dependent Microsoft.
By contrast, Gateway hasn't been nearly as channel friendly. Through the early 2000s, direct-seller Gateway operated its own retail stores, which largely catered to consumers and small businesses. Gateway direct sales out of its retail stores competed with local small business resellers. Following the acquisition of eMachines, which had strong retail presence, Gateway shuttered its stores in early 2004. Soon after, Gateway started pushing branded PCs and those from eMachines through US retail outlets.
But the retail presence didn't make Gateway the channel's friend. For example, CDW and PC Connection carry Acer, but "gateway" is little more than a router.
Acer's big challenge will be channel conflict because of Gateway direct sales. It will be interesting to see if Acer keeps Gateway direct sales or not. Gateway's inability to expand well beyond US shores has long hampered growth. Will Acer expand the brand overseas or perhaps instead look to expand its brand here through Gateway brand? My guess is the latter, if one over the other.
Whichever, Acer becomes a stronger channel-friendly OEM, which is good for Microsoft. The two companies share a common channel heritage. Acer and Microsoft have long had a strong relationship. During the year before Windows Vista shipped, I got regular visits from Microsoft executives, showing off the software's progress. Typically, they had Vista running on Acer laptops. When Microsoft gave notebooks to bloggers, they were Acer brand.
Acer is a strong Microsoft ally, particularly in markets where the channel is the only, or nearly the only, way to buy PCs, software and peripherals. If Acer can make Gateway more channel friendly, Microsoft and the channel will benefit.
Comments (10)
"Acer: PC Industry 'Disappointed' with Vista"
"Acer president Gianfranco Lanci today became the first major PC manufacturer to openly attack Microsoft over the Windows Vista operating system."
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,134962-pg,1/article.html
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..."And thus, the objectives will be achieves at the same time: To expose MS and uncover its Shills (when they respond desperately)"
Posted by Marco | August 27, 2007 10:53 AM
Marco,
Yep, but that won't stop Vista's deployment on their computers.
http://apcmag.com/3727/its_a_windows_world_deal_with_it
Posted by Ryannoyed | August 27, 2007 11:13 AM
Yep, but something is changing.
Posted by Marco | August 27, 2007 11:28 AM
A little example:
"We have seen more customers utilizing and requesting open source notebook solutions in education, government and the enterprise since our ThinkPad T60p Linux announcement, and today's announcement expands upon our efforts by offering customers more Linux options," said Sam Dusi, Lenovo Notebook product marketing manager, in a statement.
http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS7900847200.html
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Posted by Marco | August 27, 2007 11:56 AM
Ryannoyed Says:
"Yep, but that won't stop Vista's deployment on their computers."
@Rayannoyed|:^?)
"Forrester: Businesses saying no to Vista still
Enterprises not following through on formerly 'aggressive' OS deployment plans"
http://tinyurl.com/3b784l
Posted by n0ne_n0ne | August 27, 2007 12:02 PM
Acer while it has not been happy with M$ Vi$ta, and may move to some Linux pre-installs, is as Joe Wilcox implies, almost a M$ partner. If we see OEM Linux on Acer laptops soon, then you will know that MS Vista is a real dog with fleas in the marketplace.
Acer is one of those company that makes a lot of hardware that is not Linux friendly, meaning no drivers available. Which is why I vote with my money, and do not buy Acer products.
Posted by Chips | August 27, 2007 12:15 PM
http://it.slashdot.org/it/07/08/26/1628200.shtml
Title of the above link is: " MS Responds To Vista's Network / Audio Problems"
Quote from the link; "Apparently they believe an almost 90% drop in networking performance is 'slight,' only affects reception of data, and that this performance trade-off is necessary to simply play an MP3"
Quotes from the comments sections on this link:
"On a decade old machine, its possible to run a network and audio playback at real time speeds."
"This either means that Microsoft Programmers are incredibly incompetent or they are hiding something. I can take a really old Linux kernel (or windows 98 install) on a Pentium 233 mmx processor and see less than 0.05% drop in networking performance while playing an mp3."
" What are they hiding?
That it's caused by the DRM subsystem."
"Windows XP had no problems performing high-bandwidth transfers and using the sound simultaneously. Besides normal operating system scheduling there was no 'throttling' of any device A when any device B activates. This is Vista content protection backfiring, plain and simple."
Posted by chips | August 27, 2007 2:28 PM
If Acer is already plugged into the channel at PC Connection and CDW, I don't see how this makes any significant difference to the channel. Are they going to compete with themselves by selling multiple brands?
The more significant question is will Acer pull Gateway and eMachines out of retail stores. If the Gateway stock price was ~$1, they must have been doing something wrong. And Acer clearly can't offer any US retail expertise.
Posted by roger | August 27, 2007 3:57 PM
To Chips;
You may very well be onto something with the performance hit and the DRM in Vista. I have been reading several reports and data from people in the industry, professionals like myself.
As more folks uncover these things, how much do you wanna bet these things will be in the next Service Pack -- I mean, other than the DRM issues?
Also, I don't get any kind of network performance hit on Server 2000, and 2003 Enterprise -- I play music on them when I am in front of them adding, configuring and such -- So that's how I know with the servers. Yes, I see the big hit on Vista, tested on all three of my Vista workstations.
Posted by Douglas S. Taylor | August 27, 2007 6:12 PM
Joe , you did not report this incident in a sincere way.
The whole damn content of this entry is you try this highlight the sentence of " When Microsoft gave notebooks to bloggers, ......"
I can read your mind ...
Posted by Jon | August 27, 2007 9:56 PM