Acer founder says Microsoft should stick to software

The founder of the computing company Acer, Stan Shih, has made a public statement about Microsoft’s recent entrance into the PC hardware market. Microsoft’s Surface tablet has sparked controversy with a lot of OEMs as they believe Microsoft is trying to take away the market from its partners.Stan Shih “recommended” that Microsoft withdraw from the hardware market because they risk having a negative impact on OEM companies Microsoft work with.

“I think Microsoft’s getting involved in the hardware business is designed to promote its Win8 OS. But I sincerely recommend they withdraw from the hardware market when they get what they want,” Shih said.

However, Microsoft are unlikely to even consider doing this. Bill Gates recently made a public statement stating Microsoft’s entrance into the hardware market won’t hurt any OEMs and that Microsoft can share the hardware ecosystem with its OEMs. Bill Gates has stated he wants the Microsoft surface to eliminate the boundaries between PCs and tablets, probably due to the fact the PC market has slowed in recent years as tablets take off in popularity.

Shih believes, even in the wake of plummeting PC demand, that laptop PCs can remain competitive in the personal computing sector—specifically for students.

“For students, laptops with keyboards will still be the best choice,” he said, pointing out that many current tablets lack a physical keyboard.

Although, we think that Microsoft’s latest decision is good for the market. More competitors means more competition and hopefully more innovation. Hopefully, in the long term the extra innovation will drive prices down and quality up. Given Acer’s lacklustre reputation among many consumers they should probably be careful who they criticise. Let us know what you think of Stan Shih’s comments below.

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