Acer Peripherals is in a repositioning exercise

NEW DELHI: In a repositioning exercise meant to address the convergence of technologies, Acer Peripherals will now be known as Acer Communications and Multimedia or ACM. While the head office in Taiwan will see the change with immediate effect, overseas offices including that of India will see the change only by the end of the year, said company officials.

The company has come up with a corporate strategy and business model that is summarized as www*com strategy, which will take up the challenge brought about by the Internet. The first W in WWW stands for Web–the network business with the Web encompassing three sub areas. The first is the network-related devices or equipment such as network equipment currently developed at Acer Peripherals or Web-savvy devices such as WAP phones, smart phones and so on. The second sub area is the networking of the company’s own operations. The third sub area is the building of a network services business to increase communication and interaction with the general public.

The second W stands for wireless communication which will allow people to escape the restrictions of time and place and send and receive data at will. The third W represents wideband as in iRAC and IDSL routers that the company has to provide high-speed access. The C in com is for computer peripherals, which is Acer’s original business, O stands for Optronics which includes CD-ROM, CD-Drives, projectors, etc. The M stands for multimedia, which includes LCD panels and CRT monitors.

Acer has recently stepped up its presence in India by setting up offices in Mumbai and Bangalore. It has also set up a manufacturing unit in Pondicherry which will start operations by the next quarter. According to Sandeep Nair, Managing Director of Acer Peripherals India the company’s commitment to the country is long term and that it was looking at India to duplicate its success model in China. Although no specifics about investments were divulged, Nair said the company would invest a total of $ 10 million in India.

Explaining the company’s change in stand, company officials pointed out that during the next year Acer expected a significant part of its revenue to come from the newly charted area. For instance, display products which accounted for 50 per cent of its global revenue during 1999 is expected to decrease to 30 per cent during 2000, while wireless contribution will increase from 8 per cent in 1999 to 24 per cent in 2000. Digital display will increase from 7 per cent in 1999 to 20 per cent in 2000.

The global turnover of the company during 1999 stood at $1.3 billion, which is expected to increase to $3.3 billion by 2000 and by 2005, the company is projected to cross the $10 billion mark.