US IT brands may be gone in 20 years: Acer founder

Speaking to the Chinese language Commercial Times in Taiwan, and reported by press agency AFP, Acer founder Stan Shih - who retired as Acer chairman in 2004 and founded management company iD SoftCapital - said:

"The trend for low-priced computers will last for the coming years."

"But US computer makers just don't know how to put such products on the market... US computer brands may disappear over the next 20 years, just like what happened to US television brands."

This is a bold statement from an Acer founder, not sure I believe it as in todays global environment all the tech companies are located in Asia and outsource manufacturing in the same regions which includes Acer.

Acer is located in Taiwan, as is both Dell and HP who are alos located and have major design centres located in Taipei. The days where US IT companies never travelled or had a presence outside the USA have long gone. In the case of Dell, they are still located in roundrock (Austin) but they also have design locations in Taipei, Singapore and Shanghai.

Shih may well be right in the context of consumer products. However, within SMB and Large businesses are not quite as price obsessed, and there's always the enterprize market. There's no doubting the ascendancy of Asian PC makers, especially Acer and Lenovo. But let's not forget one company remains far bigger than any of them and has $25billion in cash and still growing, and is still managing to command top dollars for it products and it's called Apple, last time we looked, it is still a US company.

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