Acer’s high

Computer giant, Acer, plans to revolutionise your living room and cubical. Manila Chansmouth has just returned to the Middle East from London with the exclusive.

Acer filled two conference rooms in London’s plush Langham Hotel at Picadilly Circus,  with gadgets, phones, desktop PCs, laptops and netbooks set for launch next year that are part of the strategy the company says will keep it ahead of Dell and Apple.

The buzzing of crowds, cars, lights and off-Broadway musicals in the West End were the perfect backdrop for Acer’s gala international press day. I was the only journalist from the Middle East region to be invited.
Picadilly Circus is a constant swarm of sights and sounds – the excitement is overwhelming. So was what Acer had in store for us.

It wasn’t necessary to be a tech-freak or gadget guru to grasp the significance of the news Acer’s Jim Wong, Sr., corporate VP and president of ITGO, broke at the conference. Just a couple simple words:  “3D monitors and TVs.”

That was enough to secure my place in Acer worship but Wong went further in the quest to drop our jaws:  “We will also introduce touch-screen capabilities in conjunction with the 3D monitors. We hope to introduce this to the market no later than third quarter of 2010 – in time for next Christmas.”

Acer first plans to introduce the 3D monitors for your desktop. Monitors will come with, of course, a pair of 3D glasses. These aren’t your paper-framed, red and blue lenses that you used to get at the movies. No. These specs look more like something straight out of Star Wars or Star Trek. They’re sleek and sturdy and look like you’ll be able to shoot lasers from it, something akin to ‘Cyclops’ from X-Men.

Imagine, further, if you will – maybe you come home from a long day at work and all you want to do is kick off your shoes and catch some rugby or football.  It feels good to walk into your living room and see a nice 47-inch LCD TV mounted to your wall, quietly resting as it waits for you to command it. But then, you turn it on. Lights flash, sounds abound, you reach over for your 3D glasses and magically, Cristiano Ronaldo is in your living room.

Every drop of sweat, scowl and grunt is right there – in your face. If you were angry with the other team, I imagine it must feel nice to swat at them rather than just shout at your television.

Your other half would be taken aback by such technology too. The kids would be captivated by Shrek stomping through his house. Any man with this kind of screen in his house is sure to be the coolest guy on the block.

With the overwhelming success of recent such 3D films in cinemas like Disney-Pixar’s ‘Up’ or Dreamworks ‘Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs,’ Wong knew that 3D would be the next step for Acer to take after merging with other big technology firms Packard Bell and Gateway.

Acer President and CEO, Gianfranco Lanci, said: “Our merger with Gateway and Packard Bell has put us in a prime position to be a global brand name like McDonald’s and Coca-Cola.”

Acer has now truly put themselves into fifth-gear to overtake Dell’s position as the number-two PC-maker world-wide – making history as the first non-American PC company in the second place spot. Second now, only to HP. Acer’s big bosses in Milan now have their sights set on the Palo Alto, California-based Hewlett-Packard group.