Acer Reportedly Planning To Give Up On All Windows Operating Systems

Acer has known to be struggling in recent times and you only have to look at the figures below to see how significant the decline has been. Acer have seen a huge slump in sales over the past few years and they have done significantly worse than all other PC vendors. The Register reports that Acer is now ready to say adios to Windows to take a bold new strategy.

Acer will apparently stop using Windows operating systems altogether in the medium to long term. Acer wants to capitalise on the continual growth of Android and the Chrome OS. In the short-term it hopes that by the end of this year Android product sales will make up 10 to 12% of its revenues.  Acer revealed these new plans as the company announced a relatively modest operating loss of $20.5 million.

“We are trying to grow our non-Windows business as soon as possible. Android is very popular in smartphones and dominant in tablets… I also see a new market there for Chromebooks…For the PC industry, I haven’t seen light at the end of the tunnel. First, we have to sustain our market share and protect our bottom line … and by doing tablets and smartphones right, we can be prepared for the day after tomorrow”, said Acer President Jim Wong.

Acer has more or less been at loggerheads with Microsoft for the past few years. It has attacked Microsoft for the Windows 8 operating system creating lacklustre sales and poor overall financial performance for many Microsoft partners. Furthermore it also attacked Microsoft’s decision to start producing hardware, notably the Surface tablets, accusing Microsoft of trying to steal market share of its partners.

Image courtesy of Acer