Acer Inc (宏碁) yesterday said its gaming PC products ranked No. 3 in global markets and the company’s patented technologies have helped differentiate its products from its competitors.
“Although Acer only entered the gaming market a little more than one year ago, we have invested a lot in research and development [R&D] to make our products competitive,” chief executive officer Jason Chen (陳俊聖) told a media briefing at Acer’s headquarters in New Taipei City.
The company’s gaming products have secured major market shares in 10 countries, including Taiwan, Australia, Germany, Britain and Belgium, Chen said, citing market researcher GfK Group data.
The company declined to provide shipment figures for its gaming products.
One of the key tasks of Acer’s R&D department is to improve the thermal performance of gaming PC-related products, as it affects the overall efficiency of the product, Chen said.
Chen said the company’s increasing focus on R&D has paid off, as its patented LiquidLoop cooling system has outperformed the systems of its competitors.
Acer has also developed a patented metal fan with thin blades and that makes less noise than its competitors’ systems, Chen said, adding that the design improves heat dissipation and system performance in gaming products.
Chen, who took office in 2013, has been working on new technologies and inventions in a bid to add more value to the firm’s products.
The company filed a total of 419 patent applications last year, outpacing its domestic PC peers and ranking fourth among all Taiwanese manufacturers, Chen said, citing data compiled by the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Intellectual Property Office.
The performance of Acer’s patented technologies has helped increase Acer’s overall average selling price, Chen said, without offering any figures for price growth.
Commenting on the progress in Acer’s new businesses, Chen said that shipments of Acer’s first robot Jibo have been delayed to October, as the research team is improving the user experience of the home robot.
The PC maker in August last year participated in the second round of US start-up Jibo’s fundraising development program, but it declined to disclose the amount of its investment.
Chen said the robot would be available in the US market first and then would gradually be introduced to other markets.
It is inevitable that Acer’s Jibo will be compared with Asustek Computer Inc’s (華碩) home robot Zenbo, as the two appear similar, but Zenbo can walk whereas Acer’s robot cannot.
Chen said the reason why Jibo cannot walk is because the research team thinks Jibo might prove to be an obstacle if consumers get out of bed in the middle of the night.
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