Taiwanese PC vendor Acer Inc (宏碁) plans to collaborate with its partners over developing a cloud-based payment system rather than occupying a dominant position, Acer founder and honorary chairman Stan Shih (施振榮) said yesterday.
“We are still evaluating and will take some time to build consensus among our team members,” Shih said in response to a question about Acer’s development of a payment system similar to Apple Pay.
Asked if Acer would start its payment system with third-party online payment gateways such as PChomePay, Shih said the plan has not yet been finalized, but added that the computer maker would certainly seek benefits for all its partners.
NEUTRALLY NAMED
“That’s why I will not call it Acer Pay. It should be neutral because it needs teamwork of all parties involved,” said Shih, who oversees Acer’s cloud business strategy.
Shih made the remarks on the sidelines of a press conference to launch a career-founding competition co-organized by the Acer Foundation and CommonWealth Magazine that provides total prize money of more than NT$4 million (US$131,600).
EGIS PARTNERSHIP
The company earlier this month said that it is partnering with Egis Technology Inc (神盾), a Taiwanese fingerprint sensor provider, to develop a cloud-based payment system that would allow users to make purchases on Acer mobile phones or wearable devices.
The partnership with Egis is Acer’s latest venture into the payment business.
It purchased 7 million shares in the third-party online payment gateway PChomePay in January this year, in an apparent shift from its hardware-centric business model.
DIRECT COMPETITION?
However, the development of a cloud-based payment system might force Acer to compete directly with a similar service from Apple Inc called Apple Pay.
The Apple service combines a fingerprint scanner with the Passbook iOS app to allow for online payments via iPhones.
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