Acer Sees Success in Chrome; Windows Fails to Drive Sales
Acer Inc. (2353), the Taiwanese computer maker that's suffered two consecutive annual losses, posted strong sales of notebooks using Google Inc. (GOOG)'s Chrome platform after the release of Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)'s Windows 8 failed to ignite the market.
Context & Ripple Effects
Acer enters 2013 carrying two consecutive annual losses, and its September 2012 decision to cancel its China smartphone launch rather than compete head-on with Google already showed how tightly the Taiwanese maker's fortunes are tied to partners it does not control. This report adds the flip side of that dependence: where Google's platform pulls Acer forward, Microsoft's is not.
Windows 8 was meant to be the catalyst that restarted PC demand after its October 2012 launch, and Acer — a flagship Microsoft OEM — instead reports that its strongest notebook sales are coming from machines running Google's Chrome OS. That Bloomberg story traveled unusually wide on pickup alone, landing same-day at ZDNet, TechCrunch, GigaOM, BGR, Digital Trends, Softpedia, WinBeta and Thomson Reuters' Knowledge Effect, which suggests the market read it as a verdict on Windows 8 rather than a routine earnings note.
First-order effects
- Acer gets a working growth engine inside an otherwise loss-making business: Chrome notebooks are selling while its core Windows franchise stalls, giving the company revenue momentum it did not have under a Windows-only lineup.
- Microsoft loses its proof point at a marquee OEM partner — Acer's results show the Windows 8 launch failing to ignite sell-through precisely where Redmond needed it most.
Second-order effects
- Google gains bargaining leverage over Acer across product lines: a partner whose notebook business now leans on Chrome OS has less room to resist Google's demands elsewhere, as the cancelled China smartphone launch already demonstrated.
- Rival OEMs face pressure to field competing low-cost browser-based machines rather than cede the entry-level notebook segment entirely to whoever ships Chrome hardware first.
Third-order effects
- If Chrome volumes keep climbing at cost-focused OEMs, the PC industry structurally bifurcates into a thin-margin browser-device tier and a shrinking Windows premium tier, eroding the per-license economics that have anchored Microsoft's OEM relationships for decades.
The trend: Browser-centric notebooks are shifting from experiment to volume category at major OEMs, decoupling PC makers' growth from the Windows upgrade cycle for the first time.