Acer is said to cooperate with Chinese OEMs this year, with those companies taking over the production task from Acer when it comes to slates. The idea is to cut costs, according to Taiwanese supply chain makers.
The thing is that the Acer China president Scott Lin didn’t confirm the reports, so we can’t say if they’re real or not. He did say that there’s a mature tablet supply chain in Shenzhen, southern China and that it’s due to the rapid growth of white box vendors. Those vendors will lose their competitive edge if they don’t rely on Chinese OEMs in the future.
Acer shipped 5-6 million slates in 2013 and had Compal Electronic and Wistron from Taiwan as major ODMs. Turning to the Chinese Shenzhen companies could save them a lot of money, but will the quality of the products be kept? I’ll remind you that a few years back Acer was famous for its overheating problems.