New branding for Acer as it seeks to transform itself

• New strategy and identity in the wake of management shakeup
• Aims to transform into ‘hardware + software + services’ company

TAIWANESE tech giant Acer Inc has unveiled a new visual identity or branding as it seeks to transform itself from a hardware company into a ‘hardware + software + services’ company in the wake of management shakeups and financial struggles.
 
The company is betting on its BYOC (Build Your Own Cloud) strategy, first announced last December after the abrupt resignations of both chairman and chief executive officer J.T. Wang and president Jim Wong in November.
 
Those resignations came after Acer, once the world’s No 2 personal computer vendor after Hewlett-Packard, reported a net loss of US$446 million in the third quarter of 2013, forcing founder Stan Shih to come back to the company as chairman and interim president to help revive its fortunes.
 
In the December announcement, Acer described the BYOC strategy as a significant change in the approach the company will be taking to the ICT Industry.
 
The new vision would enable Acer customers to seamlessly integrate their PCs and mobile devices for accessing data anytime and anywhere. The company said it would also enhance its own designed apps for BYOC to improve customer experience.
 
“We are embarking on this transformation based on our existing core capabilities. On the one hand, with our PC and mobile devices, we have sufficient strength and scale,” Shih said last December.
 
“In addition, more than a decade ago, Acer announced the BC (Basic Computer) and XC (Specific Usage Computing) concepts, as well as the Mega Infrastructure, Micro Services idea to launch e-services; so it can be said we have already sown the seeds for cloud technology long ago.
 
“This was further developed two years ago when we acquired iGware (renamed Acer Cloud Technologies Inc., 'ACTI') to focus on developing the cloud business," he added.
 
Acer said it will combine its strength and scale in PCs with the foundations and core competence in cloud technology, to become a hardware plus software and services company. In the future, all Acer PC and mobile products will be designed in line with this vision, allowing users to build their own cloud on Acer devices, the company said.
 
In unveiling its new visual identity, Shih said that “Acer is continuing its decades-long tradition of challenging convention by completely redefining the meaning of the cloud for consumers and businesses; it is therefore highly appropriate that the new, powerful and distinctive visualisation of BYOC conveys this message.”
 
For consumers, BYOC would be a differentiated solution which would allow them to create a cloud that lives on their own device wherever they are, but with privacy and security. The user’s ‘digital life’ is synced wirelessly and simultaneously across his or her entire ecosystem of devices regardless of the network connection, operating system or brand of device, Acer claimed.
 
As part of its BYOC strategy, Acer is also introducing a suite of software products to help organise personal content, such as music, photos and files.
 
For businesses, BYOC would allow any company, in any industry, to create a cloud-based solution with Acer’s open platform, the company claimed.
 
They can build a multi-network, cross-platform, multi-device cloud without a significant investment in time and resources.
 
In creating the new BYOC logo, Acer said it was important to convey the key message that this is Acer’s vehicle to leap over current technology and introduce a new era of cloud computing.
 
To this end, the company was inspired by the ancient Chinese novel, Journey to the West, in which the character Sun WuKong travels on a cloud and uses it to cross thousands of miles in one leap. The stylised cloud of the BYOC logo represents more than technology, it symbolises Acer’s heritage and desire to do things differently, the company claimed.
 
Meanwhile, Acer said that it would be opening its BYOC experience centre in Taoyuan, Taiwan on May 29.
 
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