Acer On The Move

Acer, which began a massive U.S. channel push early this year, is grabbing notebook, desktop and server mind share at an impressive clip, according to the CRN Monthly Solution Provider Survey. CRN Senior Editor Joseph F. Kovar takes a look at the company's gains in a news story this week (see page 6). In the all-important notebook segment, the percentage of solution providers citing Acer's notebooks as their best-selling units quintupled between May and September—to 10 percent from 2 percent. That September figure is an all-time high for Acer in the 10-year period in which CRN has been polling solution providers.

Acer also saw gains in desktops and PC servers, according to the survey. In the lucrative PC server market, Acer rose to 4 percent from less than 1 percent during the May-to-September period. In the desktop segment, Acer's share went from literally nothing to 5 percent.

What's interesting about Acer is that the company has gone to the channel with a back-to-the-basics strategy, emphasizing its 100 percent channel-focused agenda—one that contrasts the hybrid strategy employed by most other vendors. A significant portion of Acer's gains came at the expense of Hewlett-Packard and Dell.

Last November, Acer's top executives blasted the confusing channel strategies of competitors and predicted that its 100 percent channel-focused business model would pay off. Now they are reaping the benefits.

At the time, Acer President J.T. Wang charged that rivals in the United States mistakenly believe that in order to "survive or grow they have to kill their channel business and go direct." Acer does not buy that reasoning, he said. "Acer is committing to the channel business model 100 percent and is going to get the benefit."

Acer's gains are a big fat wake-up call to vendors that believe brand is more important than channel loyalty. It's all about the solution, not the individual hardware component, and solution providers are calling the shots. Those vendors that move forward with 100 percent channel-focused strategies will win share. Those that don't will lose share. It's as simple as that.

Which hybrid sales efforts are giving you fits? Let me know at (781) 839-1221 or via e-mail at [email protected].