At the recently concluded IFA, Europe’s biggest consumer electronics show held annually at Berlin, Taiwanese personal computing firm Acer unveiled what might be a new direction for its business – gaming.
Yes, there was the new and improved Chromebook R11 (its first convertible), the Aspire R13 for its laptop range, six new Liquid smartphones, but the showstealer at IFA was the range of announcements for Predator, where Acer is taking the gaming market head on, be it mobile, tablet, notebook, desktop or just really high-definition monitors.
Andrew Chuang, who oversees Acer’s tablet products and heads the gaming special task force, says the multi-pronged gaming strategy is because “gaming covers a wide spectrum of users now.”
The thrust in gaming comes at a time when the global PC pie – Acer’s mainstay – has stubbornly refused to expand. The only consumers who are buying cooler tech with more frequent upgrades are part of the more discerning gaming community. And Acer’s got its eye on them, wherever they are.
Vincent Lin, Senior Director, Product Marketing, says Acer is looking at covering the whole gaming spectrum, from casual to more hardcore enthusiasts. “Gamers want good performance, but not all require over-the-top design. Acer wants to get the more elegant gamers in as well. We’re looking to go beyond just PC for gaming. People spend a lot of money in this segment, so Acer wants to be in gaming whether it’s phone, tablet or anything else.”
With gaming device providers already firmly established, like Alienware, this might prove a resistant market for Acer to crack. So the company is working with pro-gaming teams in Taiwan, Europe and the US, video game publisher Gameloft, esports teams and publishers of multiplayer online games to get the community to test its products, sometimes even before the official launch.
Of course, the focus is set far away from India for now. But the technology of the Predator range (like FrostCore, a third fan module that rapidly cools down CPU temperatures, or Quadio) might filter down into the regular desktop lines. It’s like with cars, Chuang says, where the technology from F1 cars eventually filter down to the ones we use every day.
(The writer was in Berlin at the invitation of Acer Inc)