Acer reported its first-ever quarterly loss and tablets like the iPad definitely were a reason for this. Yes friends, the tablet effect is real.
According to Reuters, the Acer quarterly loss of about $234.3 million wasn’t just about tablets, as the company also had to clear up inventory gluts and had to pay out many severance packages for senior executives. But Acer had been a powerhouse in the PC business thanks to its success in the lower-end of the market and that may be gobbled up by devices like the iPad.
I don’t want to overstate this though, as traditional computers and laptops still ship hundreds of millions of units every year while the tablet market will be lucky to crack 60 million this year. The problem is that PCs have always been a low-margin business, so volume is key to being a successful PC maker. Apple only sold 9.25 million iPads last quarter but it makes a large profit margin off of each device out there.
If you want another example of how low margin the PC business is, HP is looking to get rid of its hardware division to focus on the more lucrative enterprise solutions business. HP is the largest PC seller in the United States.
[Via Reuters, photo credit]
