In terms of after-sales services, IBM's three-year global guarantee for service in about 1,500 cities all over the world is the company's unbeatable advantage as an international brand, Hwang said.
The vendor rolled out a 24-hour repair service in January of this year, with 99.7 percent of cases resolved within 24 hours, according to IBM.
Users whose computers cannot be repaired receive gifts as consolation, and they can e-mail complaints to company management to help improve future services, Hwang said.
Another heavyweight player doesn't anticipate Acer's service winning significant market share, as most consumers stick to the service guarantees and components offered by the company that made their computer.
"Compatibility of components is one of the major concerns. Components of different brands may not work in harmony with other ... parts, which could cause damage," said Dennis Chen (陳敬宏), general manager of the Personal Systems Group with Hewlett-Packard Taiwan Ltd, the nation's No. 2 PC brand.
The major segment for the maintenance service should be the self-assembled computers and these account for half of Taiwan's PC market, he added.
However, since do-it-yourself (DIY) computer users can enjoy repair services provided by retail channels, such as Synnex Technology International Corp (
Speed of service
Synnex, the nation's top information technology product retailer, said the main issue is speed.
"The key point is how long consumers [must wait to] get their repaired computers back if Acer cannot fix the problems on the spot," Synnex's marketing associate vice president Lin Jun-jian (林俊堅) said.
Synnex, which has 25 repair service centers across the nation and invests an average NT$800 billion in maintenance services every year, boasts that it can repair mobile phones within 30 minutes and fix computers within two days.
Another issue is whether consumers will accept Acer's higher prices for servicing computers of other brands, due to a lack of support from other vendors, Lin said.
"If Acer cannot sort out these problems, the [on-site maintenance] service is merely a marketing issue," he said.
However, Acer's service seems to be benefitting its 60 cooperating distributors across the nation.
"We saw monthly sales grow by about NT$500,000 from repair service fees, increased sales of components and additional sales of over 10 to 20 computers, after providing on-site maintenance service," said Liao Ming-jie (
Acer's Lin said the company hopes the model will lead to a win-win situation for both Acer and its distributors. In the future the company may roll out the service in other markets, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, if it sees success in Taiwan, he added.
Acer's move is helpful in building up its brand image but could also backfire if the company overlooks strengthening internal control, a marketing expert said.
"If the quality of engineers on the first line of contact with consumers cannot be carefully controlled, the negative effect could swell faster and larger than the good result the company originally expected," said Paul Huang (黃志鵬), a senior research manager at ACNielsen Taiwan Limited.
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