

Company hopes that ultrabooks are the answer to its sales woes









Acer Aspire S3-951


Source: WSJ

Comments     Threshold


RE: Another Brand
By Mitch101 on 12/8/2011 5:46:39 PM , Rating: 4
Ive known Acer from way back when pushing in the power button would bend the case and you had to open the case and re bend it.

For me Acer today is a premium brand compared to what they used to be and like you say gateway/emachines are their lower end. I personally find they make the right choices in a lot of overlooked areas and get a bad rap.

To compare Lenovo make a pretty solid machine in feel but my Acer laptop runs cooler and has outlived two corporate laptops and that just a two year time span. Acer is doing something right its just when you touch the Acer it feels like its going to break or its a little thin but it keeps going. I dont doubt the inside they just need to put something more into the look and feel. A little thicker plastic could change many peoples minds about what they are making.

RE: Another Brand
By StevoLincolnite on 12/8/2011 6:05:04 PM , Rating: 2

My first Notebook I got back in 2003 which had a Mobility Radeon 9600, 1.6ghz Pentium M, 2gb of ram and a 120gb Hard Drive.

Just happened to be an Acer.
Heck I could even run games like Oblivion on it with some modding of course.
It went everywhere. Work was mostly labour-outdoors stuff to keep track of inventory and geography and it hummed along in the rain, wind and shine till even this day.

Sure it's a little warn, the ports have a little rust and the CCFL backlight is about as dim as some people I know, it's been dropped, sat on and crap spilled all over it...

If what you say is true, that the older Acer laptops were crap, then I might jump on a newie if they can survive what I have put this thing through.

RE: Another Brand
By mrbios on 12/8/2011 8:37:31 PM , Rating: 2
I bought the laptop you're talking about, used, for my niece about 3 years ago. It's currently running Windows 7 quite nicely actually. At first it had some issues with the BIOS being incompatible with the newer Vista/7 power management (there'd be no battery meter), but some Google searching led me to a modified, unofficial BIOS that fixed this.

The battery had to be changed, and probably will need to again soon, and had a couple power adapters die, but she's still running well. It's also taken a bit of a beating as well, and just won't die. Since Windows 8 is supposed to have equivalent or less requirements, I'm sure she still has a few more years of use left in her.

RE: Another Brand
By Ytsejamer1 on 12/8/2011 9:42:02 PM , Rating: 2
I don't know...I can't stand HP hardware and by default, will never touch buy a Dell. I did enjoy servicing the Dell laptops though...they were pretty decently designed for breaking down and putting back together.

I've recommended Acer to friends and family and they haven't had any problems. They always seem to have solid features, use solid hardware, and overall just work pretty well.

Their tablet was underwhelming but most of the HoneyComb tablets were all the for a wallpaper, couple of apps, etc.

I hope they stick around...i like the design of their stuff.

RE: Another Brand
By Solandri on 12/9/2011 2:11:35 PM , Rating: 2
Most of the big name laptop manufacturers don't actually make the laptops they sell. They buy them from OEMs (or ODMs as they're called in this market niche, since they also do the designing, not just the manufacturing*). Then they slap their name on it before selling it to you. Most of HP's laptops are made by Quanta. Quanta also makes the Macbook/Pro and current gen Air. (Indeed, the unibody aluminum frame of the Macbooks was Quanta's innovation, not Apple's. Asus made the Macbooks prior to about 2008; I think they made the original.) So most of the HP laptops were designed and built by the same people as the Apple laptops.

Asus is the only laptop company I know who makes all their own stuff. Not surprising since they started off as an ODM (they've since spun off their ODM branch into a subsidiary - Pegatron). IBM used to make its own too, but Lenovo has farmed out a lot of its manufacturing. That's not to say other companies don't make their own laptops - the Sony Z is designed by Sony in Japan and (initially) manufactured in Japan. But the vast majority of their other laptops (and pretty much all major brand laptops, including Apple) are made by ODMs.

Bottom line is, you can't really judge a notebook by its brand name. Maybe Quanta makes better laptops than Compal. But some of Dell's and Toshiba's models are made by Quanta, while some of their other models are made by Compal. And there's no easy way to tell which model is made by which ODM. About the only thing the brand name is good for predicting is the level of aftermarket support you'll get.

RE: Another Brand
By Rukkian on 12/9/2011 3:50:23 PM , Rating: 2
While I do agree with most of what you say, there is a difference in what the retailer (Dell, HP, Apple, etc) offer, even from the same ODM. You can have 2 different laptops from the same ODM and have them still be quite a bit different in quality due to the options that got selected during the design phase. Each brand has a certain look and feel that they are going for.

RE: Another Brand
By melgross on 12/11/2011 6:42:39 PM , Rating: 2
Nuts! Quanta doesn't design anything for Apple, and they didn't design the aluminum cases either. I know some people just don't want to give Apple credit for anything, but seriously...

And Quanta isn't the only manufacturer of Apple's notebooks. And they don't always make them. Apple has several suppliers. Apple even often buys the equipment for some of these manufacturers.

There are different quality levels. Companies even spec the individual parts used. Quants is just an assembler.

