10 Critical Decision of Acer Company

9. Imagine that you are buying a new computer and comparing different brands and prices. Describe at least two nonprice competition factors you might consider when making your decision. (2-4 sentences. 2.0 points)

Acer has a degree of control over its prices and a considerable amount of non-price competitions exists, which ultimately leads to price discrimination (University of Phoenix, 2011). As such, Acer should focus on attaining and retaining loyal customers. Their non-pricing strategy should be focused on the development of products that are unique

Of world’s 100 most influential brands published by MBO, Intel is listed at number 48 in 2010 standing.

Microsoft’s policy enables competition between PC producers resulting in lower prices. This also causes stratification of the PCs resulting in low-end, average, and luxury versions.

On the 1st of June, 2015, Intel announced that they acquired Altera, another chip maker in the high technology industry who is particularly professional in producing programmable chips, by $16.7 billion as well as about $54 per share for Altera shareholders, which was the largest acquisition that Intel ever made (Nusca, 2015). The price is quite close to which was proposed by Intel, but in fact, just two months before Intel approved the acquisition, Altera rejected the price that Intel proposed. In the last few years, Intel suffered from the declining sales of personal computers, of which has been the main profitability source, and has been dominated by Intel for a long time, as consumers switch their preference from laptops and personal computers to tablets and other mobile devices (Huddleston, 2015). As a result, away from PCs, Intel has to work harder to get

In serving its customers Dell has succeeded more than its rivals. It can be seen from the table 3 that ranks PC manufactures based on Consumer Report where Dell won the 1st rank place.

Their main focus is to create effective strategic framework that capitalizes on the strong market consumer direction, cash optimization from their assets, and maximizing their financial strength. By doing so, the company not only becomes effective, but also efficient and furthermore, it strengthens their business position in the global market.

The large capital requirements to enter the computer industry combined with established brand identities of the current incumbents make barriers to entry high, not to mention the economies of scale and distribution channels that incumbents enjoy which make entry barriers even higher. The current PC incumbents enjoy demand-side benefit of scale in the business sector where PC buyers prefer to buy products from large trusted companies, raising the level of entry barriers.

Very large customers accounted for 70% of business and no single customer accounted for more than 2 %

We knew that while making our product we had to keep in mind that different type of customers wanted different things all depending on how much they were willing to spend on the product. For example, Our Workhorse demanded more Easy to use, Low price, has a distinct look, able to store a lot of data, After-sale service and support, can link with other computers, Fast and powerful. They needed something reliable and less expensive since they are the hardworking people that don not have too much money to spend The chart here explains a little better on the Workhorse needs and want. The price that the workhorse was willing to pay for the product was 2,500.

True to nearly any commoditized product, pricing and availability became the only two significant differentiators quickly as Intel increased

As indicated in the table above, Dell and HP are the strongest players in the computer industry. These results are also supported by the market share statistics presented in case Exhibit 3. Conversely, the table above indicates Acer as the industry’s weakest rival in part because it focuses on producing low priced computers,

HP has established itself as a solid brand; their success is due to their size and formidable sales machine due to the quality.

Both Dell and HP are two strong players in PC industry which refers to an industry where companies produces PCs (desktops and notebooks), handheld devices (smart phones and tablets), and workstations. However, with growing global expansion, Dell and HP’s performance differs. Dell, once the world’s largest PC maker in 2001, has continually lost its market share to HP and Acer since 2007 (Guglielmo 2009). The cause is rooted in two differences of these companies: company diversifications and core competences. Therefore, how firms can continually survive in the PC business is more of an issue for Dell than for HP.

Acer's dominance as a global manufacturer of IT hardware products can be attributed to the company's extensive electronics component expertise, depth of experience managing global electronics component supply chains, and well-planned acquisitions. Through a series of successful acquisitions, the company has four successful brands including Acer, eMachines, Gateway and Packard-Bell (DiDominico, Kartika, Sibeck, 1996). Of these three strategic areas that Acer excels in, their logistics and supply chain expertise across each of the geographies they compete in continue to deliver the greatest time-to-market and cost gains (Honi, Taring, Po-Young, 2000). Acer is organized into two segments, the device business group and consolidated products and services or other business group. This second group continues to be instrumental in the success of the "divide and conquer" strategies that Acer is successfully using relative to Lenovo. It is also a critical success factors in their success with global markets and local market competitive strategy. The combination of their depth of expertise with electronic components and supply chain prowess in the high technology industry also give the company a formidable competitive advantage against Dell and the troubled PC marker Hewlett-Packard (Honi, Taring, Po-Young, 2000). Despite all these strengths however, Acer continues to struggle with the areas of consumer branding and consumer awareness