Acer CEO Thinks Consumers have lost their Minds over iPad
It seems that everyone is getting a little testy when it comes to the iPad of late. Heck, even Steve Jobs took off his gloves on Monday to prematurely bury RIM and poke Google's Eric Schmidt in the eye. You have to remember that this is the second time that Steve Jobs has tried to rile his competitors. But in the bigger picture, this kind of jostling is just beginning to heat up. Research in Motion's (RIMs) CEO fired back and touched on Apple's famous "Reality Distortion Field." And now, Acer is jumping in by insulting consumers who love the iPad.
You've lost Your Minds!
This morning DigiTimes reports that "Acer chairman JT Wang, at a recent summit in Taiwan, commented that the competitive impact of iPad upon notebooks is not as serious as many people have imagined and demand for netbooks appears to be stable around the world except in the US and UK.
Commenting on Apple CEO Steve Jobs's forecast that tablet PCs will replace the notebook market, Wang said that Apple's theory may have its basis in the US market, but under a global perspective, Acer's statement is more accurate. He added that a new product will always have mass demand initially, but consumers will eventually return to their senses …" Translation: You've lost your minds over the iPad!
"As for Acer's tablet PC schedule, Wang pointed out that there are still many related technologies that have not yet matured and the company will launch products when the time is right. Acer is not in hurry to be the first to launch." Translation: We have no software; don't know if we ever will and until we do, consumers won't buy iPads. Yep, sure, I get it, no problem, you're delusional.
Apple skated by Acer in Q3 to become the # 3 PC Vendor in the US and it's all to the credit of you stupid delusional people that put Apple there. Now stop it and come to your senses – got it (ha)!
As you could see by the action listed in our Patent Infringement Archives, the wars in court as well as in the press concerning the iPhone and iPad are just starting to kick up a storm that will be with us for many years to come. And for those of you who are happily delusional, Apple will be presenting you with more euphoric goodies later today. It somewhat reminds me of the famous line in the film "Apocalypse Now" with a twist: Ahh, don't you just love the smell of fresh delusion in the morning? Well, yes we do.
Enjoy the Show.
Cheers!
Update October 21, 2010: The hyperlink to the DigiTimes webpage noted in our report is only available by subscription after a certain amount of time (e.g. a week). Therefore we're providing you with a copy of the page's content below so that you could verify the quotes. Note that Patently Apple has modified the physical copy to fit our blog - but has not altered the content therein. Click on the graphic to see a slightly larger and clearer version of the DigiTimes report.
First reactions:
The New MacBook Air: Excellent design upgrade with solid state storage: Nice.
iLife's new iMovie Home Movie Trailers: Brilliant. We're all going to have a blast with that feature.
iLife's new GarageBand Features include lessons for piano and guitar and includes a new "How did I Play" feature to track your performances over time. Where was that when I was a kid? Who knows, I may even try piano with this tool. Very cool.
iMac Upgrade: Non-existent. Booooo. This would have been the time to upgrade the iMac. Very disappointing. The best that we could expect now is a boring last minute speed bump and maybe a bump to a 23" display .... if we're lucky.
Then again, with OS X Lion being about touch, how could one take the gamble that Apple won't reivent the desktop in 2011, right? On the flipside, OS X Lion won't supposedly alienate those buying an iMac today as Apple will "likely" shy away from a touch display.
Although it would be nothing for Jony Ives to create a MacBook like HP's EliteBook 2740p with a swivel display of sorts to create an iPad experience (so that touch is horizontal), Steve Jobs and Apple wish to play stupid for the time being - like they can't even imagine it. Is that a marketing move to hide what's coming or a realistic postion Apple will employ long term? Time will tell.
Posted by: Jack Purcher | October 20, 2010 at 01:49 PM