only been on the job five months, inherited an organization besieged by
a shrinking PC market and record losses.
So how is he doing? Too soon to say, really, but there are signs Acer
might be turning over a new leaf: The company this week unveiled a
tablet, a bunch of smartphones and its first smartwatch, the Liquid Leap. No PCs, though. If nothing else, it's clear the firm is eager to branch out beyond cheap laptops.
Here at Computex
(ostensibly a computer show), we asked Chen what he thinks consumers
want in a smartwatch, and how the Leap will stand apart from other
wearables entering the market. Chen's surprising answer: He doesn't know
yet. "We believe over time the market will prove itself," he said in an
interview. "What we have to do is get the product [out] and see how it
goes." In the meantime, Acer's strategy is to hedge its bets. The Leap
attempts to be both a smartwatch and a fitness device, with features
that include SMS/call notifications, step counting and sleep tracking.
At launch, it will only work on Android (just an Acer phone
to start), but an accompanying iOS app is already in the works.
Whatever it is that people want to do with a smartwatch, Acer is trying
to cover its bases.
Reading in between the lines, though, it seems Chen is aware the Leap
is probably imperfect. "This is the first product we've introduced in
the wearable market, and it won't be the last," he said. "We understand
the market is going up, and we have to make sure we don't miss it. What
we are learning, the industry is also learning." In other words, better
to enter the market as soon as possible, and get your mistakes over with
early.
their second generation of smartwatches, and both have yet to master
things like user experience and app selection. It's not surprising,
then, that Jason Chen doesn't seem to know what consumers want in a
smartwatch; companies that have been at it for years
still don't have the answer. That doesn't bode well for Acer, which
perhaps isn't as early to the market as Chen would have you believe --
and which faces competition from other newcomers such as Motorola, LG
and Razer. Then again, plenty of other companies (Apple, Dell, HP, ASUS,
Toshiba) have yet to announce anything at all.
Acer certainly faces serious challenges trying to figure out the
wearable equation, but Chen insists his company has a leg up. His own
experience in semiconductors -- he comes from TSMC -- helps, he says.
"How long can you expect to recharge your device?" he asked, referring
to some of the unsolved challenges of building a smartwatch. "Those
power consumption questions need to be fixed." More importantly, Chen
says, Acer is a big brand that people trust. And even if they don't, the
company can still reach a large population of people, all while keeping
the price down. "We have established a foothold in the industry so when
the market starts to ramp up, we participate," he added. "Rather than
being too late, at the tail of the market."
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