Acer's Plan For U.S. Profit

When J.T. Wang took over as chairman and CEO of Acer Group earlier this year, he inherited an organization that has enjoyed 12 consecutive quarters of profit worldwide but has "lost a fortune" in the United States, he said.

The change at San Jose, Calif.-based Acer America has come from an infusion of talent and channel experience from Europe, where Acer holds the No. 1 or No. 2 market-share position for notebook PCs in Benelux, France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland.

This talent includes Rudi Schmidleithner, president of Acer America, who headed Acer's European notebook PC operations until about a year and a half ago. Working with Schmidleithner is Maarten de Haas, Acer America's vice president of marketing and product management who previously headed Acer's European notebook PC business.

Acer America also is supported by Gianfranco Lanci, who became president of Acer Group earlier this year. Lanci, an Italian who previously served as president of Acer EMEA, spends at least one week a month in the United States, Wang said.

These new executives are applying their channel experience to the U.S. market, Wang said. "According to Rudi's request, [Acer America] is trying to ask the management team in Europe to consider the United States as one of the huge countries of the Europe supporting territory," he said.

The plan seems to be working, several channel partners said.

Paul Bay, senior vice president of North American vendor management at distributor Ingram Micro, Santa Ana, Calif., said Acer has simplified its channel program, pricing and supply chain to be more channel-friendly. "Part of the reason is they are bringing in programs from Europe," he said. "We've seen that success in our European operations as well."

Tim Aman, owner of C-RAM, a Bismarck, N.D.-based Acer reseller and solution provider, said Acer has made significant strides in adjusting its pricing. "Acer's notebook pricing has gone from being a premium a year ago to now being competitive with Hewlett-Packard and Dell," he said.

Yet not everyone is sure Acer's new European look is working. Stephen Bohlig, CEO of Compar, a solution provider in Minnetonka, Minn., said Acer needs to generate buzz around its brand with its channel partners and customers. "Is Acer channel-aware?" he asked. "They might be. But is the channel Acer-aware? I haven't heard anything."