Bright spots on PC market
In his keynote, chief executive Jason Chen said that while the PC segment is "at best, a stable industry", there is room to grow.
"Even in a stable industry, there are bright spots: the Chromebooks, two-in-ones and gaming," said Chen.
At the New York event, the Acer team presented an array of new devices, with a particular emphasis on its sweet spot in education.
Among the highlights was a long battery life edition of its 15.6-inch Chromebook 15. The US$199 Acer Chromebook CB3-531 boasts 11.5 hours of battery, which Acer claimed was the longest in the 15-inch segment.
Chromebooks featured heavily in Chen's presentation and no wonder: according to Gartner, Acer holds the largest market share in the world, with more than 36 percent.
The new Chromebooks will be released in North America in July, starting at US$199. Australian shipping details were not announced.
Launches and previews
There was a bevy of launches and previews at the event, including notebooks, tablets, smartphones, gaming rigs, projectors and wearables devices.
Gaming got a fair share of focus; not only did Acer present a gaming desktop and notebook, it also showed the Predator gaming tablet. In fact, Ahrens singled out gaming as a bright spot for Acer, and a segment where it could engender passion from its customer base.
"In the PC market, the next big thing is to get our gaming initiative going. Acer as a brand lacks emotion. We are affordable, we are quality, we are performance, we are reliable, our users like us, they recommend us but we want to be loved.
"To be loved we need emotions and gaming is the Formula 1 of the PC industry," added Ahrens.
Across the bevy of new kit, not all of these will see Australian launches. The wearables and smartphones, for instance, have no set Australia launch date.
Steven Kiernan is a guest of Acer in New York.
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