14 DAY TRIAL // Acer's lineup of desktop PC systems is nothing short of impressive but it would seem that, much in the same way as most of the other companies involved in this particular market segment, it prefers to have others do the actual manufacturing.
So, according to a very recent report by Digitimes, it seems that Acer, who's ranked as one of the top PC manufacturers, fighting Dell and HP for one of the top three spots, has decided to step-up its outsourcing activities to Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry), following the latter's establishment of a brand-new production facility in inland China.
Of course, as you might expect, a company the size of Acer doesn't outsource production to a single firm, four different big names (Foxconn, ECS, Winstron and Quanta) taking orders from the company for various types of systems.
However, as the previously-mentioned source points out, the relationship between Acer and Foxconn has gone a little “colder” after the latter announced to move its manufacturing plants into inland China, a move Acer feard would adversely affect its shipments.
However, it's quite likely that things will change a lot on the future, after Foxconn pledged complete support for Acer's products on the future, after completing a new assembly plant in Huizhou (Guangdong), China.
In fact, rumor has it that Acer, who's apparently looking for a second partner for manufacturing AIO (all-in-one) PCs, beside Quanta Computers, might actually chose Foxconn for this new and potentially very lucrative deal, especially since the AIO segment is quite on the rise.
Naturally, it remains to be seen just how both Acer and Foxconn will mitigate the shipments issues likely to appear after the disaster that hit Japan, especially since the area worst hit by the earthquake and tsunami was a heavily industrialized one, many components used in manufacturing Acer's products being produced there.