The Acer Guy

I don’t know about you but the allure of historical racing cars is, to me, one of life’s irresistible forces.

I grew up with Mario Andretti and James Hunt, and through them discovered Gilles Villneuve, Jackie Stewart, Jack Brabham, Stirling Moss and many many others.

I love those old black and white photographs showing the race winner sitting in the car just moments after crossing the finish line wearing an open shirt, their faces black except for the ring around their eyes from the goggles! Timeless..

Love them or loathe them, of the various teams competing today at the highest levels, only Ferrari has successfully carried a tradition of sporting excellence from the beginning, which is why it’s a truly magical sight to see these historical cars running - they’re just so damned evocative!

Shell has put together a very special TV advert that I haven’t seen yet (UK only perhaps?). In any case I simply couldn’t resist putting it up here, if nothing else so that I know where to find it every time I need that Ferrari fix.

Oh and what’s it got to do with Acer? Have a look as the 2007 F1 car pulls out of the petrol station. You can see the Acer logo in front of the left rear wheel. Not for long mind..

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While TheAcerGuy isn’t exactly ranking well on whatever search engine you use, it does attract some visitors.

And those visitors seem to be using the Swicki that’s been sitting there on the right since November to find out more information on Acer.

I thought I’d post the results so far as they provide a curious insight into what’s hot (important) and what’s not.

Acer support - 36
Acer laptop - 29
Asus Lamborghini - 25
Acer notebook - 23
Acer Travelmate 270 - 18
Gianfranco Lanci - 15
Acer Ferrari - 14
Acer USA - 14
Empowering Technology… - 14
HP PDA - 14
Acer review - 13
Fingerprint recognition… - 13
Acer PDA - 12
Acer computer - 11
Acer deals - 11
Acer mobile solutions… - 9
acer n music matc - 9
Trusted Platform Module… - 9
Acer PC - 8
Acer notebook cpu upgrade… - 3
Acer USA warranty - 2
internet explorer 7 - 1
orbicam spec - 1
travelmate 8200 - 1
Acer - 0
acer c500 pocket pc trave…- 0

As expected, support is top of the agenda. Given the heat some other manufacturers have been taking over their customer support, this is not at all surprising.

Interesting to see the Asus Lamborghini up there above the Ferraris (who’d have thought?) along with HP’s PDAs that also feature for some reason which means that Acer’s are obviously well worth a look.

One curious one (for me at any rate) is the interest in Internet Explorer 7. I have a hunch this has to do with the ActiveX issue but who knows what you guys are looking for??

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I’ve been a bit slow off the mark lately. I’ve just tracked down a vlog on Shiny Shiny’s site this morning. Susi Scarlett gave a quick one minute overview of the Ferrari 1000 which I think deserves a mention.

I like the Shiny Shiny site. It’s quick, easy and very girl-oriented and a lot of fun to keep up with. Thing is, quick and easy doesn’t always paint a proper picture.

I know I run the risk of getting flamed by a lot of girls over this but this isn’t an anti-girl thing. Quite the contrary…

First of all, while I can fully understand that car-branded products don’t exactly tick every girl’s desire box, given a bit of thought, there’s more to the Acer/Ferrari co-branding than cheap products and car sounds.

Acer and Ferrari may or may not be cool in your part of the world, but they are recognized the world over for their technology-driven values and share some serious appeal, proven year in and year out by their unstoppable growth.

Look even closer, you’ll find that “cheap” is in fact a cruel interpretation of “value”, with Acer delivering more features per pound/euro/dollar/yen etc.. than almost everyone else, again yet another reason why Acer is so popular.

Acer is an official sponsor of Scuderia Ferrari and anyone who saw Schumacher’s final fling in Brazil will always remember the car he did it in. Not a bad team to be involved with if you ask me.

Susi also mentioned brand popularity amongst her male friends. I’d love to have sat in on that top trumps conversation. Bentley and Aston Martin… both undisputedly great brands but suitable for PCs? Really? They may be fast but they’re hardly light (one of the most important decision makers when choosing a notebook). Ferrari gets weight down with carbon fibre, Bentley adds weight with chrome, walnut and wilton – all magnificent for cross continent adventures, but hardly the sort of values you need when your job requires you to haul your notebook around all day.

Audi I agree with. It shares values that are closer to IT standards but does anybody seriously think Audi could out-brand Ferrari? They may win at Le Mans but it’s not as high profile as F1. Besides they win with diesel engines which even Susi’s ultra-high-fashion male friends would have a hard time associating with cool. And let’s not even begin to talk about the appeal of an estate car…

Brand issues aside, I also would like to point out that the “Bluetooth adapter” Susi mentions is in fact the first integrated Bluetooth-enabled VoIP phone on the market, designed specifically to make internet phone calls a reality and to avoid having to wear those bundled headphones you get with webcams or even worse, leaning over at weird angles to shout into the built-in microphone. Oh, it also has hands free capabilities to you can talk and type, for free.

It’s the little details like these that makes technology easier to use. Making technology work is what Acer and Ferrari represent, and is why it’s a perfect match.

A one minute video may be quick and easy, but it’s nowhere near enough to show the plusses and the minuses of a serious product and all too quick and all too easy to get it wrong.

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It has been mentioned more than a few times that 80% of the components of competing PCs are all the same.

Think about it: LCD screens, processors, hard disks, graphics cards (and dare I say it, batteries)… they’re all shipped in from one manufacturer or another and assembled in various combinations to offer optimum solutions at specific price points.

So what’s the difference?

The difference lies in the remaining 20%. That’s the part that contains all the added-value of one brand over the next. Sure, this part contains things like warranties and after-sales support, but even there companies compete on more or less the same level.

The one thing I have always liked about Acer is, quite simply, what you don’t see. If you take a closer look at the spec sheets, the number of “AcerXYZ technologies” is really quite something. You’ve got Acer SignalUp technology that conceals an extra-sensitive PIFA antenna on top of the LCD screens where they enjoy maximum signal strength as well as Acer InviLink™ Nplify™ wireless technology as featured on the latest Ferrari notebooks. That’ll explain why all the Acer notebooks I’ve owned always seemed to suck a wireless signal out of nowhere.

Then, on some notebooks, you’ve got the massive Acer Video Conference package that includes a 1.3 Megapixel Acer Orbicam™ that in turn features Acer VisageON™ technology (a face tracking feature that keeps your face in the centre of the screen), and Acer PrimaLite™ technology that automatically adjusts the colour and definition for clearer pictures the really clever Acer Bluetooth® VoIP Phone that pops out of a slot and saves you yelling into the daft little built-in microphone.

What about the screen? They’re all the same aren’t they? Well. No. First Acer came up with Acer CrystalBrite™ technology that took screen clarity to another level and then they introduced something called Acer GridVista™ which resizes the application windows and slots them into dual, triple or quadruple grid configurations so everything you have open is right there in front of you where you can see it (tip: if you really want to get the most out of this feature, hook up a second external monitor (which you’ll probably do through the Acer PCI Express® ezDock) and then tell me if having up to eight organized windows doesn’t speed you up a little bit).

How about protection? Well for starters there’s Acer Gravisense that protects the hard disk by automatically retracting the disk heads if the notebook takes a fall and there’s even Acer Anti-Theft technology that sets off an alarm if the notebook is snatched away.

Then there’s the mother of all add-on applications: Empowering Technology. I’ve only ever come across a couple of other blogs that talk about this software whose sole purpose is to make changing something “important” on your PC, notebook or whatever, simple. Apart from the one on The Acer Blog, which in turn links to a pretty cool explanation here, I also found a quick review of it on Tracy and Matt’s blog.

Empowering Technology shouldn’t be underestimated. I have seen it used in real situations and it makes as much difference as all the other trademarked technologies listed above put together. It’ll be interesting to see how it evolves with the Vista platform.

But that’s another argument. The fact is Acer has bundled almost its entire product range with a series of added-value technologies each designed to help you get more out of your product. Notebooks, Desktops, projectors and even their TVs have been given the Empowering treatment. If you don’t believe me, then read this.

Acer doesn’t shout too loud about this added value, and I really think it should as I believe this particular take on Pareto’s 80:20 principle says a lot more about a PC vendors approach to its customers than any performance benchmark ever could.

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