Acer aims to ship 2-2.5 million own-brand smartphones in 2010 and the company expects its annual shipments to increase to 20 million units by 2012-2014, making the company a top-five global smartphone vendor with a 6-7% market share. Aymar de Lencquesaing, president of Acer's Smart Handheld Business Group (SHBG), recently provided insight to the company's view of the smartphone industry and Acer's strategy to succeed in the segment during an interview with Digitimes.
Q: Acer has entered into the handset business, so what is Acer's strategy as a handset vendor?
A: We aim to target all the segments in the market, otherwise we will be considered a niche player as a brand for either mass market or high-end devices. In addition, you have to build up an economic scale in production. Accordingly, we have completed a survey on 30,000 consumers and we intend to roll out various handsets to cover the needs of different segments.
Q: The smartphone segment includes traditional handset makers as well as PC vendors. How will Acer face the competition?
A: There is no market without competition. PC makers and handset vendors all have products and they are looking at the potential of mobile data devices that can target the smartphone, netbook, notebook, or other converged device segments. However, I think a vendor has to offer a complete lineup of products in order to survive in this type of market.
With handsets, Acer now can offer carriers more products to choose from. Acer has built up its success as well as its reliability based on the solid foundation it has in the notebook and netbook segments. This has provided us with an advantage when we are pushing sales of our Acer-brand handsets to carriers.
Q: Have you set a sales target for your business group?
A: The global smartphone market is growing at a rate of 15% a year. We look to ship 2-2.5 million smartphones in 2010 and expect annual shipments to reach 20 million units in 2012-2014. Some have expressed doubt over our goal, but that is what I'm pushing for.
We expect our handset sales to gain momentum later on, and we are looking to rank as a top-five branded smartphone vendors in the next 3-5 years.
Q: What are the effects of Acer's acquisition of E-Ten Information Systems? Will E-Ten and your ODM handset partners play different roles?
A: E-Ten boasts a strong R&D team and also has a good reputation, and I think the consolidation between Acer and E-Ten is complementary. E-Ten will focus on R&D and deal with small volume production, while ODM partners will handle large volume production.
Q: Being the CEO of Packard Bell previously, have you faced any adjustment in your capacity as the head of Acer's smart handheld business unit?
A: Although the technologies and clients pertaining to PC and smartphone segments are different, I believe I can still bring a useful management style to Acer because the two segments still have something in common such as dealing with carriers.
I am always positive despite having to routinely take into account market concerns that can sometimes makes me a bit paranoid. This is a dynamic market and I have to constantly watch what new products are coming out from Apple or RIM (Research in Motion). Whenever I am thinking about the goal of pushing Acer to become one of the top-five smartphone vendors, I am inclined to be more paranoid, which is healthy, because it pushes me harder to move forward.
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