Acer, the world’s fourth largest computer maker by shipments, has attacked Microsoft’s move into tablets, highlighting the rift between the software group and its former allies in PC makers.
JT Wang, chairman and chief executive of Acer, said Microsoft’s plans to launch its Surface tablet in October, in competition with his company’s Iconia and HP’s TouchPad tablets, would be “negative for the worldwide ecosystem” in computing.
He is the first head of a big PC maker publicly to criticise Microsoft’s move. “We have said [to Microsoft] think it over,” he told the Financial Times. “Think twice. It will create a huge negative impact for the ecosystem and other brands may take a negative reaction. It is not something you are good at so please think twice.” The criticism is striking because in the past two decades, Microsoft and PC makers have enjoyed a symbiotic relationship.