Acer Inc (宏碁) yesterday said it is aiming to become a lifestyle brand following the launch of new energy drink in a livestream on Tuesday night.
The beverage, called Predator Shot, is perhaps one of the computer company’s most surprising attempts in expanding the Predator gaming line.
Seeking to repackage Acer as a lifestyle brand, the company has announced several accessories vaguely related to PCs, including a gaming inspired massage chair in collaboration with Singapore’s OSIM International Ltd (傲勝國際) and a sling bag sporting the green Acer logo.
Photo: CNA
“Our energy drink will help boost gamers’ energy and reduce fatigue resulting from too much screen time,” Acer chairman and CEO Jason Chen (陳俊聖) told a news conference at the company’s headquarters in New Taipei City, while also unveiling a collagen drink that targets female gamers.
Citing a saturated market, Chen said the company has to seek new growth beyond the PC industry.
“Forty years ago it [the PC industry] is considered a high-tech industry, but now it is no longer the case,” Chen said
“We cannot [afford to] stay in such a mature market and expect things to get better,” he added.
Still, Acer has witnessed a boom this quarter as sales over the past two months surged on the back of robust demand fostered by the growing trend for distance learning and work-from-home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
With orders throughout the fall remaining high, the company is optimistic about its PC business in the second half of the year.
“[The increase] in demand from distance learning is phenomenal... We are having trouble satisfying up to one-third of our orders,” Acer cochief operating officer and president of corporate marketing, business planning and operations Tiffany Huang (黃資婷) said.
The imbalance between supply and demand is compounded by persistent supply chain disruptions across the PC industry, Huang said.
“As some countries remain under lockdown, some plants are unable to resume production... The delay of one component can lead to another,” she said, adding that the company is talking with suppliers to resolve shortages of components and raw materials.
China is set to become the largest growth driver for the company this year.
“Due to our relatively small presence on the Chinese market and the country’s early recovery [from the pandemic], we believe it holds great potential,” Huang said, adding that Acer is witnessing a growth rate higher than the PC industry’s average.
However, Acer’s performance in other countries across the Asia-Pacific region — including India and Indonesia — might be affected by continuous strict COVID-19 containment measures.
Last year, India and Indonesia accounted for about 25 percent of the company’s sales in the region.
Demand from the European and US markets is expected to continue on an upward trend due to their relatively rapid online migrations, the company said.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves hit a record high at the end of last month, surpassing the US$600 billion mark for the first time, the central bank said yesterday. Last month, the country’s foreign exchange reserves rose US$5.51 billion from a month earlier to reach US$602.94 billion due to an increase in returns from the central bank’s portfolio management, the movement of other foreign currencies in the portfolio against the US dollar and the bank’s efforts to smooth the volatility of the New Taiwan dollar. Department of Foreign Exchange Director-General Eugene Tsai (蔡炯民)said a rate cut cycle launched by the US Federal Reserve
Handset camera lens maker Largan Precision Co (大立光) on Sunday reported a 6.71 percent year-on-year decline in revenue for the third quarter, despite revenue last month hitting the highest level in 11 months. Third-quarter revenue was NT$17.68 billion (US$581.2 million), compared with NT$18.95 billion a year earlier, the company said in a statement. The figure was in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$17.9 billion, but missed the market consensus estimate of NT$18.97 billion. The third-quarter revenue was a 51.44 percent increase from NT$11.67 billion in the second quarter, as the quarter is usually the peak
Nvidia Corp’s major server production partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) reported 10.99 percent year-on-year growth in quarterly sales, signaling healthy demand for artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. Revenue totaled NT$2.06 trillion (US$67.72 billion) in the last quarter, in line with analysts’ projections, a company statement said. On a quarterly basis, revenue was up 14.47 percent. Hon Hai’s businesses cover four primary product segments: cloud and networking, smart consumer electronics, computing, and components and other products. Last quarter, “cloud and networking products delivered strong growth, components and other products demonstrated significant growth, while smart consumer electronics and computing products slightly declined,” compared with the
The US government on Wednesday sanctioned more than two dozen companies in China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, including offshoots of a US chip firm, accusing the businesses of providing illicit support to Iran’s military or proxies. The US Department of Commerce included two subsidiaries of US-based chip distributor Arrow Electronics Inc (艾睿電子) on its so-called entity list published on the federal register for facilitating purchases by Iran’s proxies of US tech. Arrow spokesman John Hourigan said that the subsidiaries have been operating in full compliance with US export control regulations and his company is discussing with the US Bureau of
RSS