宏基新產品挑戰蘋果Acer:substitutes for tablets

Consumers do not know what they want, according to Jim Wong, president of believes that it is the supplier's responsibility to figure that ing by the range of products unveiled at this week's giant Computex PC show in Taipei, the industry is not very sure either.

按照宏基(Acer)總裁翁建仁(Jim Wong)的說法，消費者並不知道自己要什麼。他相信解決該問題是供應商的責任。從本週規模巨大的臺北國際電腦展(Computex)亮相的產品範圍看，行業也不太確定。

Acer too is hedging its bets. Not only did it present the world's thinnest ultrabook, but also hybrid aps after the past year management can be forgiven for short order the former world number two shipper of PCs (now fourth, just behind Dell) parted company with its chief executive over strategy disagreements, took a $150m charge for "questionable" accounting,saw sales drop by a quarter, and suffered its first operating loss in a decade.

宏基本身也在兩面下注。它不僅推出了世界上最薄的"超級本"(ultrabook)筆記本電腦，還推出混合平板/筆記本。也許在經歷過去一年的遭遇後，管理層的謹慎情有可原。在短短的一年內，這家前世界第二大個人電腦(PC)供應商（現在排第四，僅次於戴爾）因戰略分歧與首席執行官分手；爲"有問題"的會計操作記賬1.5億美元；銷售下滑四分之一；還遭遇了十年來首次營業虧損。

This is Acer's fightback year, as it is for other PC makers who have struggled to catch up with the popularity of are betting on Microsoft's Windows 8,due for release later this are also taking the battle to Apple with laptops that become tablets, and new ultrabooks–Acer's Aspire S7 ultrabook is 12mm thick compared with the MacBook's 17mm.

今年將是宏基奮起反擊的一年，其它正竭力追趕平板電腦潮流的PC生產商也是如此。他們正押注於微軟Windows 8，該操作系統將於今年晚些時候發佈。他們也正與蘋果(Apple)展開競爭——藉助平板/筆記本電腦，以及新的"超級本"：宏基的Aspire S7超級本厚12毫米，而蘋果MacBook則厚17毫米。

Consumers should benefit,but makers may struggle to profit as they wait for users to decide what they has not released pricing details for the new Aspire, but it will be in the high-margin premium category dominated by is a risky departure for a company more familiar with the wafer-thin margins of the cheaper end of the mass has at least already stanched the financial bleeding, producing operating profits in the last two quarters (albeit with a margin of 0.1 per cent) new products were among the hits of Computex, but they will not ship until later this year. Between now and then,expect more heavily promoted unveilings across the industry,but little stors have some time to make up their own minds about who to back.

消費者應能受益，但在等待用戶決定到底要什麼之際，生產商可能很難獲利。宏基還沒有公佈新款Aspire系列的定價細節，但它將屬於蘋果主導的高利潤的高端品類。這對一個更熟悉微薄利潤的低端大衆市場的公司來說，是一個冒險的新方向。至少宏基已爲財務創傷成功止血，在上兩個季度實現營運利潤（儘管利潤率只有1%）。它的新產品在電腦展上很吸引眼球，但要在今年晚些時候纔會發貨。在那之前，預期業內會有更多隆重發布的新產品，但不會有很多產品真正投入市場。投資者還有時間來決定到底支持誰。