Acer CFO Tu Che-min and Chairman JT Wang on Friday outlined a consciously mobile-oriented focus for restructuring in the wake of the forced departure of its CEO Gianfranco Lanci the day before. It would name a new president before the end of April that would focus primarily on smartphones and tablets. The overall switch away from Acer’s traditional computer business would require more spending on research and development, Che-min said.
Company representative Henry Wang added that the emphasis would be on being profitable rather than on the emphasis on sheer market share.
JT Wang, who is assuming the CEO spot from Lanci, was insistent that the need for change wasn’t going to damage the company’s expectations for tablets. Acer still planned to ship five million to seven million tablets, such as the Iconia Tab A500 series, throughout 2011. Suspicions had surfaced that the company would have to lower its predictions.
The shuffle follows after 12 months that for Acer marked a reversal of its fortunes and attempts to deny its problems existed rather than tackle them head-on. The company repeatedly insisted that the iPad’s success was about to end, only to delay its expectations by a few months after past predictions failed to come true. It insisted on keeping a heavy focus on netbooks and low-end notebooks but ended up losing market share to the iPad, plunging in the US and losing its second-place worldwide position almost overnight
