Paul Cook, managing director for Acer UK, recently announced his resignation. His resignation came in the wake of the appointment of Sammy Levitt - ex-business manager of Acer’s Italy branch - as country manager of Acer UK. But the exact reason for Paul Cook’s resignation is unclear, with Cook stating that:

“Over the past four and a half years my team has made monumental effort and demonstrated high levels of commitment to take Acer to the number four position in the market. Naturally, Acer has its sites firmly fixed on taking the number one market position, but with current market uncertainties, it is fair to say that we have not entirely agreed on the business model necessary to achieve this. Therefore, I have decided that it is in the best interests of both the company and myself that I move on.”

[News via vnunet.com]

It seems that Acer is delving further into the Indian PC market with this introduction of the AcerPower Entra home PC. With an AMD x86 1600 CPU, 128MB DDR SDRAM, 40GB HDD, and a 15″ CRT monitor, the AcerPower Entra is definitely a budget PC aimed at the up and coming Indian middle class.

But for a clearer understanding of Acer’s goal for the Entra, read the following excerpt and the source article:

“Through our research we have seen that most low-cost offerings do not have certain features required for efficient home computing. Acer India has taken the initiative to create the Acer Power Entra designed specifically for the Indian consumer’s requirements. As part of our ‘Empower India’ initiative this Republic Day, we have once again broken barriers to reach a price point we are sure will appeal to consumers across segments. We expect much enthusiasm from the home consumer in B&C cities, where we will be focusing most of our marketing efforts,” said Sam Thomas, Assistant GM, Networking and PC Client group.

[News and picture via IT News Online]

According to Dell’s CEO Kevin Rollins, Dell considers Acer as a significant threat given Acer’s demonstrated adaptability and “…well-built supply integration in the PC industry”. Rollins believes that Acer has the potential to become a serious competitor for Dell in the near future. However, he still believes that Dell’s direct-sales model provides Dell an advantage over Acer in the Acer-Pacific market:

Rollins believes that Dell’s direct-sales model, in contrast to Acer’s channel marketing strategy, will definitely help its sales in the Asia-Pacific PC market and worldwide consumer PC segment. Dell will continue to use its direct sales model to expand its presence in the Asia-Pacific region, said Rollins.

Well, I’d say that it’ll take Acer quite a few more years to be real competition for Dell in the overall PC market. After all, while Acer has recently moved several notches closer to Dell in the notebook market, Acer is still far away in the desktop market.

[News via Digitimes]

Finally, some interesting news. It is reported that Acer (and Asustek) may soon launch notebooks that use Seagate Technology’s new 2.5-inch notebook hard disc drive (HDD) - which is built on perpendicular recording technology - as early as March. This storage powerhouse spins at 5400 RPM, with a power-saving 4200 RPM mode.

This is amazing stuff alright. So, when can we get notebooks with 1 TB RAID?

[News via Digitimes]

Amid worries that Acer may report weaker sales last month and this month, Goldman Sachs has “…lowered its target price for Acer from NT$91 to NT$80, and lowered its estimate for the company’s 2005 EPS (earning per share) from NT$5.65 to NT$4.92 and that for 2006 from NT$6.7 to NT$5.87.” The worries stem from potential competition in Europe and the US, as well as possibly lower gross margins in China and Europe.

[News via Digitimes]

Vodaphone has announced that its Vodafone Mobile Connect Card Broadband service will be expanded to support High Speed Data Packet Access (HSDPA). The notebook card itself is based on Option’s GlobeTrotter HSPDA card - which was lauched earlier this week. With speeds of up to 1.8Mbps (the upload speed is 384Kbps), HSDPA is “…up to five times faster than today’s standard 3G networks.” This will come in handy for the Acer TravelMate 4260 and Aspire 5650 - the two HSDPA-enabled Acer notebooks announced earlier.

But while Acer was the first notebook manufacturer to announce support for HSDPA, Dell seems to have taken greater initiative by partnerning Vodafone to bring HSPDA connectivity to its notebooks.

[News via Reg Hardware]

Notebook sales in India grew 94 percent in the first half (April-September 2005) of 2005-06, with Indians purchasing almost 153,000 notebooks - eclipsing the 36,000 units bought in the same period two years ago. This growth was primarily led by the small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Read more about this phenomenal growth at PhysOrg.com.

If you have been watching Acer’s recent moves, you would remember the launch of the Acer Travelmate C200 tablet PC in India (specifically targeting healthcare sector professionals). I doubt that was a coincidence. We’re probably going to see more if these kind of regional targeting as developing economies fulfill their potential as demand hubs for PCs and other high-tech equipment.