I lump Acer in with the whitebox category.
Since when has making a product affordable been a bad thing?
They have used a variety of tactics to lower the price of their gear.
They have mastered keeping a minimum amount of inventory on hand to
operate. They have very low overhead compared to a lot of other vendors
who operate stores, etc.
They have skimped on support. According to Dell they're addressing that
problem. It's rare for a company to come out and say "we suck and we're
trying to fix it" which to me is pretty refreshing.
Thane Sherrington wrote:
At 03:05 PM 17/08/2006, Ben Ruset wrote:
Who makes a quality computer?
I'm very happy with Acer. And the whiteboxes I sell are excellent.
Before we start saying "All major brands sell crap today" we have to
remember the Dell spearheaded the rush to the lowest possible price* and
that's when the quality and service dropped off the cliff. Dell is the
Walmart of the computer world. Too stupid to teach customers how to buy
a good quality computer (or too scared to let them see how bad their's
were) Dell went the route of the bottom feeder and pushed price only.
The other manufacturers (admittedly, also too lazy to educate customers)
tried for awhile to compete on quality over price but failed to teach
customers how to understand quality. Price is a easy thing to compare,
and given nothing else, customers bought the cheapest thing they could.
Sure they bitched about quality and service, but they consoled
themselves by thinking that every company was the same. If Dell goes,
then perhaps Acer, HP and Lenovo will start thinking that a $1500-$2000
computer with good quality components and support by English speakers
would be better for everyone and the industry will right itself.
*While not the first to take this route, they were the most successful.
T
