My first impression was that this was Acer imitating Apple — no harm in that. Loads of companies are imitating Apple. But Acer’s effort didn’t seem to be particularly well thought out. Apple has been a huge success because it offers desirable products with clear differentiators in a limited number of choices promoted through a comprehensive marketing strategy. Most of the products shown at Acer’s press conference didn’t even have names, indicating that a marketing strategy has yet to be solidified and while the Iconia is amusing, its dual touchscreen layout is far from unique as Acer claims. Perhaps Acer missed Toshiba’s dual touchscreen Libretto back in June.

Confusing too, were the details about Acer’s online store Alive, which were either absent or concerning. For instance, Alive will initially be rolled out in Italy, a nation beloved by Acer’s CEO Gianfranco Lanci, and the UK, a market that already has other well-established content stores. Then Alive rolls out in Europe, Asia and the Americas through the first half of 2011. It’s not until the second half of 2011 that Alive will be seen in the developing world where there might be serious demand due to a lack of access to other premium content sharing platforms. No Acer executive claimed to have a clue as to what impact Digital Rights Management issues would have on the content available on Alive outside major first world markets. 

Only Acer-branded devices equipped with DLNA technology work with Alive — that leaves out all Acer products sold before 2009. The Alive “Recommends” feature, will push appropriate content to a user’s attention. This means that big brother Acer will now be analyzing the entertainment consumption patterns of those who buy from its online store to try and spoon feed them the endorphin or adrenaline stimulating content they most crave. No details were available on where Alive’s user data would be stored, how it would be managed and whether it would be shared, although Acer assured everyone that all legalities would be observed. Middle East Acer executives admitted that the press conference was the first that they had known more than the sketchiest of information about Alive.

After the press conference, Lanci disappeared and it was not until December 1, that Giuseppe Mastandrea, Acer’s EMEA regional director, Emerging Markets, became available for an interview. Did he have more insight on Acer’s strategies and how they relate to the Saudi market? Mastandrea is still trying to figure that out. He only arrived in Dubai in November and it seems that specific data on perceptions of Acer in the Saudi market are lacking, although he did cite Acer’s continuous growth in market share as an indicator that their products found favor with Saudi consumers.

“Our brand mission is ‘simplify my life,’ and we are going with our technology and products in this direction,” said Mastandrea. “Clear.fi, the Acer media sharing system, is a completely innovative concept that really can help people improve the quality of life at home. For example, you can download something on your smartphone or on your tablet and show it on the TV or for example you can manage the TV that’s in your children’s room, changing the movie from the kitchen. You can fully integrate all your devices at home based on the DNLA concept in a very simple system, meaning that you just click one button on the machine and they are all synchronized. It’s really a seamless experience. I didn’t see any other solution like that from any other vendor.  Personally I am starting to use it at home because I try always to test the products from my company and my family is finding a lot of advantages for it.”

It should be clarified that only Acer devices can control other devices through Clear.fi. With this media sharing system, devices from other brands are merely accessible storage when networked and then shared through Clear.fi. If you’re interested in purchasing all your digital devices from Acer, then Clear.fi can offer great functionality. But your iPhone won’t be able to control your Acer notebook using Clear.fi.

Mastandrea had high hopes for Alive.

“Alive is a bit different comparing to the current solutions that you have on the market.  Because with Alive, basically you can have really a very broad number of concepts but with the sort of personalization that it’s much more customer oriented,” he advised. “For example if today I go on iTunes or on Android Marketplace, it is very, very generic. I can find the contents that were selected by Apple or Google to participate in their website with some very tough conditions, as you know from the American companies. Our goal is really to give the opportunity to anybody who wants to develop software. The important point is that the software should be working. So we just check that it is working and put it on our website.”

He continued, “The other advantage is that you will have the possibility to personalize it. Whenever you connect to Alive, the system will start to profile you and will automatically propose the content that you like. Today, sincerely speaking, when I connect to the Internet I spend a lot of time and I am not able to find what I want. Our goal with Alive is to make people find what they like in a very simple way.”

In terms of the rollout of Alive, Mastandrea put forward a completely different roadmap for the content sharing platform than the one that was unveiled in New York.

“With Alive what we are going to do is that first of all I don’t think we will focus a lot on the USA because Acer is a company that is strongly focusing on emerging markets. So we are giving priority for sure on emerging markets. And of course we expect that by the end of the year that we will cover Saudi Arabia, Turkey and other countries. So we are for sure considering very highly the importance of those regions. Personally, I will make my best (effort) to make this solution available. We are still defining the schedule for Alive next year and for sure I can confirm that the Middle East Region is in the roadmap. I don’t think that we will be able to reach Europe, America, etc. by the second quarter of 2011, this is a bit of an ambitious plan. But for sure by the end of the year we’ll be able to cover the major countries in Europe and the Middle East and Africa.”

At this point Aman Khan, regional marketing & communications manager, Acer Middle East and Africa joined the interview.

“The whole concept of Alive is based on global and then local content. So when we are talking about global and local content there are some content management rights issues and there are a lot of things that need to be worked out which are in progress,” Khan said. “But the Middle East and Africa, including Saudi Arabia are definitely on the roadmap in terms of the launch of Alive. The (New York) press conference focused on bringing this child called ‘Alive’ to life so it was just its launch. Then there’s a structure in terms of country plans for how it’s going to be rolled out in each country based on the appropriate marketing strategy, to make sure that we’re able to launch a right product, a right offering in each market.”

According to Mastandrea, Acer’s top management has decided to invest strongly in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region for 2011 and there are changes coming. Acer branded tablet computers will show up first in the region, followed by Packard Bell branded tablets in the second half of 2011. The company will be running a survey in Saudi Arabia to get user feedback directly from the market. This is to understand whether Acer is facing any real issues here in terms of product availability, reliability and service, or if it’s just rumors and innuendo.

There’s also a plan to heavily target corporate Saudi Arabia in 2011. Khan remarked that Acer has a very strong retail presence in the Kingdom and that although the Acer brand isn’t found in the offices of Saudi enterprises, this has nothing to do with reliability issues.

“Acer has never been an active player in that space,” he said. “That is a business which does not turn around overnight. It’s something where you have to develop loyalty, where you have to perform and you have to go with the right strategy.  So that is a business that we are looking at growing into and which we are investing into.”

So from Acer, there are loads of promises for the Kingdom’s businesses and consumers, but little substance. Arab News will keep you posted on whether the marketing talk actually translates into market action.