

Apple products are a mutant virus... says Acer founder - pietrofmaggi
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20100909PD210.html

======
BigZaphod
While reading this, I couldn't help but feel like he wants the "more open"
platforms to beat Apple mostly because it means that he (and others) can just
leech off the work being done by the OS or hardware vendors so they don't have
to bother with everything themselves. It feels lazy.

Apple does everything themselves so they can offer a complete, cohesive,
unified package that their customers want. The PC vendors always seem to be
looking for an easy way out so they only have to do half as much work. Either
they don't want to mess with hardware, or they don't want to mess with
software. They want someone else to come and build stuff they can take and
bundle rather than digging in and doing what it takes to make a complete
product for their customers.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
Apple uses basically the same stock hardware as everyone else, and when they
don't they mostly contract them out to the same companies to build them.

People don't like to believe this (see the fairytales people made up about the
magical A4 chip before it was revealed to be Samsung's Hummingbird paired with
a slightly less powerful GPU compared with Samsung's own version, which in
itself is fairly equal to its Qualcomm and TI rivals) but it's just the way
the world works.

You might have a stronger case on the software side, but even there Apple
recognizes the strength of building on standards and open source which allows
them more time to focus on differentiation rather than reinventing wheels
(though they still do on occasion if it suits them).

Apple package these things together well, and I believe that's an important
skill and adds value, but for whatever reason people don't value that so they
need to invent secret sauces for Apple.

~~~
BigZaphod
Apple uses most of the same components as everyone else, but not _exactly_
identical and not always in standardized configurations. They are doing the
work of coming up with solid, profitable, and interesting combinations of
mostly-pre-existing hardware and combining it with a solid, profitable, and
interesting combination of mostly-pre-existing software. (Some of which they
own entirely, and plenty of open source stuff as you said.)

Apple has a hell of an R&D department. As far as I know, their retina display,
unibody laptop manufacturing processes, and touch-based trackpad tech are
unique to them. It's been shown a number of times that their touch screens are
way more accurate than others, and somehow their battery life is quite
remarkable compared to competitors as well. With the exception of the display
and the unibody cases, the stuff I've listed here all require hardware and
software to work closely together to achieve the perfect experience. It's
areas like that which the PC makers will always suffer in if they don't change
their approach, IMO.

~~~
elai
Making an LCD have a high ppi is not difficult. You had lcds with greater
ppi's 10 years ago for LCD projectors and what not. A unibody laptop isn't
breaking ground from a manufacturing stand point, it's just specifically
shaped piece of aluminum.

~~~
BigZaphod
If it's so easy, why had no one else put them in their phones or built their
laptops out of them?

~~~
ergo98
Probably because they couldn't convince people that it was magical.

Why did the iPhone run at such a low resolution while Windows Mobile and
Android phones were coming out with 3x more pixels? Yet when they increase the
DPI game slightly, brand it as a Retina Display, you think they're innovative?

~~~
BigZaphod
It was a just _bit_ more than a "slight" increase. I think Apple had been
planning on being able to double it all along - hence the initially lower dpi.
But of course they'll never say for sure.

~~~
ergo98
I meant they accomplished a slight increase in DPI across the genre (not
relative to the iPhone 3GS) -- a large number of phones that came out months
earlier are within spitting distance of the iPhone 4's DPI, but it just was
never a big deal.

------
NumberFiveAlive
The level of hyperbole in the title of this article versus what the guy is
actually saying is striking.

------
pohl
Wait a second...he's saying that PCs evolved naturally and implying that
Apple's products did not. Yet Apple's products are a mutant virus, which is a
metaphor from natural selection. Sounds like he can't make up his mind.

~~~
pietrofmaggi
Give him a break! ;-)

He was already looking at Acer as the biggest player in the netbook field and
now Apple put all the netbooks in a corner.

And Acer has now to invest some money to develops Android tablets, and it
seems to me that they are a bit late on this.

~~~
jrockway
Isn't Asus the big netbook player? They "invented" them, anyway.

~~~
pietrofmaggi
Yes Asus, with the eee PC, invented the netbook segment, but is Acer that has
the leads:

\- Acer leads netbook market while Apple loses market share
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2008/dec/10/acer-a...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2008/dec/10/acer-
asus-netbooks)

\- Netbook Will Reach 26.32 Million Units and Take 17.2% of the Total Notebook
PC Market in 2009
[http://www.displaybank.com/eng/info/sread.php?id=4412&pg...](http://www.displaybank.com/eng/info/sread.php?id=4412&pg=1&device2=7)

    
    
      2009 Top5 Netbook Shipment Result/Forecast
      |  Rank | Maker   | Shipment(K units) | Share |
      |-------+---------+-------------------+-------|
      |     1 | Acer    | 11,300            | 42.9% |
      |     2 | ASUSTek | 6,450             | 24.5% |
      |     3 | HP      | 1,810             |  6.9% |
      |     4 | MSI     | 1,110             |  4.2% |
      |     5 | Dell    | 940               |  3.6% |
    
    

But things are now changing:

\- Apple's iPad nabs Netbook market share:
<http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-20007756-64.html>

And forecast are gunning the netbooks segment:

\- Forrester: Tablets To Outsell Netbooks By 2012
[http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Forrester-Tablets-To-
Outsell-b...](http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Forrester-Tablets-To-Outsell-
bw-3354414880.html?x=0)

Are really netbooks on the extintion list? I think so.

------
thenduks
_Shih also brought up the example of the competition between video tape
formats, pointing out that the open VHS standard won against the closed
Betamax format._

So, to paraphrase, "stick with Acer because the best man doesn't always win"?
:)

~~~
akshayubhat
no because you can run programs on Acer netbook which will also run on say HP
and Dell netbook's.

~~~
astrange
Betamax tapes work on other Betamax players. I hope.

~~~
akshayubhat
oh are i-OS API and code cross platform compatible? Do any other companies
except Apple create iOS devices?

in fact Apple used 3.3.1 to make sure that code was not cross platform
compatible.

------
nanairo
I like the way he confuses the Android/Windows market with the manufacturer
market. As the head of Acer I'd imagine he is looking after the company Acer
and how much money they make, not about the whole Android/Windows market.

And does Apple or Acer make more money from selling computers? Talk of a
pyrrhic victory. :D

It wouldn't feel so weird coming from someone who is not a computer
manufacturer (maybe from Google, a carrier or someone completely outside). But
basically he is saying: "Hey, we'll win in the end, together with everyone
else... and get less money out of it than Apple 'losing'. So we are doing the
right thing.". So much for his metaphor.

