Young people and sport: a natural and valuable relationship that Acer, TOP Partner of the Olympic Movement in the computer equipment product category, will celebrate by taking part at the first-ever Youth Olympic Games that will be held in Singapore from 14th to 26th of August 2010.

Balancing sport, culture and education, the inaugural edition of the Youth Olympic Games will inspire young people all over the world to embrace the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect.

Acer strongly believes in values that Sport promotes, especially in the constant effort towards excellence as a result of passion and commitment. After having successfully partnered with the Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in February 2010,  Acer will be now on the side of the 3.600 young athletes aged between 14 and 18 years that are going to compete in 26 sporting disciplines. Its deep commitment involves providing the computing equipment needed to build the core PC infrastructure and contributing to the CEP – Culture and Education Programme.

More than 2.000 PCs will be deployed in all competition venues and in the Digital Media Center (DMC) to help ensure that the Games can go live.

Acer also supports the International Olympic Committee programmes such as the Young Ambassadors and Young Reporters initiatives that will play an important role in the Youth Olympic Games Culture and Education Programme.

Thirty Young Ambassadors, aged between 18 and 28 and selected from the five continents, actively promote the YOG within their countries and communities. They also encourage athletes to participate in the cultural and educational activities that will be part of the Games.

The Young Reporters are students of journalism and young people aged between 18 and 24 years that will benefit from training by highly qualified media professionals.

Each of them received an Acer Aspire 1810T Special Edition for the Olympic Games, a notebook with a classy silver brushed metal finish and diamond cut Olympic logo that helps them to fulfill their mission.

Moreover, Acer is supplying the USB keys that IOC donates to all young athletes. The key includes exciting video films and a lot of useful information to encourage them to participate in the CEP.

At the heart of the Youth Olympic Village, in the Digital Media Center (DMC), Acer computers will make sure that young athletes enjoy educational and cultural multimedia programs and always stay connected with their families, friends and the whole world.  

“As sport overcomes barriers by acknowledging the value of difference and the strength of common objectives, Acer moves in the same direction – states Gianfranco Lanci, President and CEO, Acer Inc. – by facilitating communication among different populations through easy-to-use technological solutions shaped around real people and real needs“. 

Acer South Africa has announced the release of the 15.6″ Aspire 5334, an affordable notebook that is equally good at productivity tasks and multimedia entertainment.

Powered by one of the latest Intel Celeron Dual Core processors, built on the Mobile Intel GL40 Express Chipset, and boasting 2 GB of DDR2 667 MHz memory, this notebook is an essential partner for a mobile lifestyle on the road and an entertainment hub and excellent multitasker at home .

With a 320 GB hard drive, the Aspire 5334 allows users to download and store a wealth of content. This data can be easily shared using a multi-in-one card reader.

The Aspire 5334 also shines as a multimedia notebook, thanks to the HD screen that brings photos and movies to vivid life. The Mobile Intel GL40 Express Chipset with integrated 3D graphics features an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500M  and supports Microsoft DirectX 10, providing great performance for video and 3D graphics.

The notebook is all about connectivity – it makes it easy for users to interact face to face with their favourite people wherever they go. They can connect to any wireless hotspot via built-in Wi-Fi or go the wired route using Fast Ethernet, and then use the Acer Crystal Eye webcam for video chats for a fun, personal way to stay in touch.

The full-size keyboard features large keys for enhanced typing, while media keys give users total control over their digital entertainment. A touchpad lock prevents accidental cursor movement, and a WLAN key instantly connects to available Wi-Fi hotspots.

Says John Geypen, product manager at Acer South Africa: “The Acer Aspire 5334 is an affordable notebook for anyone who needs a machine that offers great media performance, multitasking and easy connectivity on the road. With its combination of elegant design and the latest components, the Aspire 5334 is a versatile notebook for people with busy lives.”

Beijing, 27^th May 2010 – The best part of Acer clear.fi solution is that it can grow and change accordingly to your needs. Using the devices of the Revo family as building blocks you can add any of them and create the environment that best meet your own desires and requirements. The Acer Revo family includes Acer Revo multimedia center, Acer RevoView media player and Acer RevoCenter, a home storage appliance.

Acer Revo is an all-in-one multimedia center that gives the ultimate personal theater experience in your living room. Slim and elegant, it is graced by a contemporary design and finish with the added convenience of the innovative wireless remote control. The RevoPad allows effortless media control and seamless navigation through a double functionality: a touch-sensitive backlit QWERY keyboard, that turns into a multi-gesture touchpad simply with a click. Acer Revo comes equipped with Acer clear.fi console, the advanced Acer solution that delivers all you need to enjoy HD videos and movies, view your latest photos, play your favourite music or share your medias with your online communities.

Acer RevoView makes enjoying digital content on a high-definition TV easy and intuitive – no complex device settings, burning DVDs, or connecting a computer to the TV. This HD media player has a compact design with a matte black finish and a large power button emitting blue light for easy operation even in the dark. It can be connected directly to your TV, without need of complex set up, plus rear and side ports allow easy connection to surround sound speaker systems to enjoy an immersive entertainment. The handy remote control combined with the friendly UI to provide easy access, browsing and playing of your media library.

Supporting an extensive range of media formats, the Acer RevoView can play content from a host of devices: USB, HDD, storage cards, optical disc, and UPnP mass storage media. What’s more, the easy swappable hard disk drive can be easily changed to play a different set of media and can be shared with the 2010 Aspire M Series desktop PC and Acer RevoCenter. 

The HDMI^™ port enables high-definition 1080p video and music playback. And to complete your media enjoyment, connect to the Internet to view Flickr^® and Picasa^™ photo slideshows on a big screen.

The Acer RevoCenter is a wonderfully compact and quiet home appliance that lets you store, protect and share your growing digital library with family and friends. Thanks to UPnP support all connected devices can easily access all media contents stored in the large hard disk space.

And what’s more, with the Acer RevoCenter you can stream digital media content to multiple applications or DLNA compliant devices. Up to four hot-swappable Serial ATA hard disk drives offer plenty of space for your ever growing collection of pictures, movies, videos, games and documents. Ready to take its place at the heart of your digital home and let you share files on your home network, the Acer RevoCenter can be remotely accessed so you can connect to your server anytime, anywhere and upload or download files. Storage space can be increased by simply adding internal or external hard disk drives, while hassle-free PC and file backup along with a smart recovery process make sure your files are safe and sound.

Pictures, video or data files can be easily uploaded to the Acer RevoCenter directly from your portable devices. All you need to do is connect the device through the USB port and press the one-touch backup button. Data is automatically sorted and stored by file type into folders of your choice.

First it was the flat screen; then there was the fuss about high-definition, and now there is much excitement about the latest development in 3D viewing technology.

3DTV is starting to get serious attention in the quest for the ultimate home entertainment system, but too few people actually understand the difference between 3D capable displays and high-definition panels.

In an effort to make the buying decision simpler so as to prevent disappointment, Levina de Matos, Samsung product manager at Tarsus Technologies says there are a number of significant things about this technology that consumers should know.

“3DTV is a broad term for the display technology that lets home viewers experience video content in a stereoscopic effect. It adds the illusion of a third dimension, depth, to current TV and HDTV display technology, which is typically limited to only height and width – that which we know as 2DTV,” explains de Matos.

“Understanding how the technology works is simple,” de Matos continues, “our eyes are about three inches apart, which allows each eye to see a slightly different perspective of the same picture. The brain takes images from both eyes, collates the visual data and uses the difference between the two images to calculate distance, which then creates the perception of depth.

“3DTV today makes use of active-shutter technology and with this method, a single sequential imager switches very rapidly between the left and right images when projecting the information on a display and the viewer wears a pair of battery-powered glasses that contain shutters that are capable of opening and closing rapidly.

“Each shutter opens and closes in alternation while the screen displays left- and right-eye images in sync with the glasses. The result is that the left eye sees only the intended left view of the image, and the right eye sees the intended right view and the brain can then blend it together into a single, stereoscopic image,” de Matos explains.

“The main improvements afforded by new 3DTV technologies are full colour and a high resolution of 1080p, made possible by Digital Light Projection technology which uses a microchip (or three, one dedicated to each primary colour) that has an array of tiny swiveling mirrors which create the image. While 3D was originally limited to DLP televisions, 3D capability is soon to be available on all the major HDTV technologies,” de Matos notes.

“HDTV is essentially the highest form of digital television, with a 16:9 aspect ratio and high ratios that are either 720p, 1080i and 1080p. The numbers stand for how many lines there are to make up the picture display, and obviously the more the better.

“But then there’s also the ‘i’ and the ‘p’, which represents the type of scan the TV uses and ‘p’ stands for progressive while ‘i’ stands for interlaced.

“Progressive scan is better than interlaced because it processes the images twice as fast. This faster scan rate produces better clarity and colour in the displayed picture. And 1080p is the best resolution on the market today, since it’s the highest,” de Matos continues.

“3D-capable television sets are likely to be limited to the high-end models and are therefore more likely to have a higher price tag than we’re used to seeing. There will be a definite need to purchase the glasses separately, and the quality of the 3D experience is likely to hinge on which type of glasses manufacturers choose to use with their 3D sets.

“Much like Blu-Ray, which took about four years to catch on and become readily available (both in terms of viewable content and a reasonably priced player) it will be some time before 3DTV reaches a point where it will be readily accessible for mainstream consumers. There is still much to come, in terms of development, to ensure that the 3DTV home viewing experience is comfortable,” de Matos explains.

Conservative estimates put it at about six to eight years for 3DTV to be at a point where it can then become a part of consumers’ every day life. Until then it’s going to remain a niche product, which a few early adopters will nonetheless be determined to buy.

Advice for those early adopters would be to ensure that the set they buy works with active-shutter glasses, and not polarised or colour-tinted glasses, since active-shutter technology is designed to eliminate the side-effects associated with polarised or tinted glasses, namely headaches, nausea and blurry vision.

In the meantime, those who are prepared to be patient while the technology is perfected would do well to purchase a really high-quality HD television set.

“Look for one with a 1080p resolution, which has a refresh rate that is as high as possible (i.e. 120Hz) which will ensure that your home entertainment experience is as rich an experience as it can be,” de Matos concludes.

Traci Maynard, general manager of Acer at Tarsus Technologies has made a name for herself in the IT workplace over the past 17 years – and now she’s using that name to drive change.

While the technology industry has for the longest time been dominated by men, paradigms are shifting, boundaries are lifting and women are steadily beginning to make their mark in this vibrant market sector.

Traci Maynard is one of those confident, capable women making a mark on the South African IT industry. And the impact she’s making at her company and in the industry as a whole is paving the way for a very different future.

With more than 17 years’ experience in the IT distribution market – and about two thirds of that time spent creating magic for Tarsus Technologies – Maynard was the person behind her company’s success in driving the market’s adoption of the Acer, Cisco and Dell brands when they were fresh arrivals in South Africa.

Aside from creating the initial demand for these brands, Maynard’s expertise stretched into creating a robust foundation and instilling a steadfast loyalty for these brands in the channel.

Her positive attitude and all-encompassing experience in everything from the notebook, desktop, server and networking arenas has proved invaluable in this regard.

A true role model for other women in conventionally male-dominated industries, she believes that the workplace should be not about the battle of the sexes.

“It’s about who’s best prepared,” she says.

“It’s about the person who always has a plan up their sleeve and is ready to execute that plan, given a moment’s notice,” she adds.

Maynard believes that if you’re always well prepared and can adapt to any situation, there’s little that can go wrong for you.

Maynard’s decision to become involved in the IT industry, specifically in the area of hardware distribution, came after having completed a diploma in Marketing and Sales Management because, as she says, it seemed to be the industry that offered the best combination of everything: hard work, spiced with interesting challenges and tempered with a fair amount of fun.

And it seems that by all accounts, she found that to be true.

In terms of gender equality issues in the IT space, Maynard says she has noticed that an increasing number of women are holding top titles in South African companies and that senior management positions are held by both men and women, thereby creating a better balance and a happier working environment. 

“This,” she says, “is noticeable because staff want to talk to someone they feel they can relate to, and sometimes men forget this.

“While time is usually limited and everyone has a busy agenda, lending an ear to your staff and taking the time to listen, generally works in the company’s favour – and this is undoubtedly an area where a woman’s ability to nurture and support can be beneficial,” she adds.

While gender equality has become less of a concern in the industry of late, Maynard believes there are a number of other issues that still need to be addressed and she considers empowerment to be an ongoing process.

“More commitment is needed to ensure the true empowerment of women and previously disadvantaged individuals. South Africa is like a first world and third world country all rolled into one. A solid realistic plan is what’s needed for job creation to reduce poverty, which also necessitates addressing basic human rights in some areas – including housing, clean water, education and learnership programmes,” she says.

On the topic of green issues and being more environmentally responsible, Maynard believes that even though it hasn’t yet been legislated in South Africa, recycling should be a priority and environmentally-friendly modes of business ought to become the norm.

In terms of her vision for the future, Maynard hopes that the cohesion of vendor and distributor relationships can be solidified, and she believes that this requires the vendor to see the distributor as a vital link in the supply chain – not a place to dump stock and move on.

Additionally, she would also like to see more open communication between competitive distributors when it comes to resellers that are bad payers or non-payers.

With her pragmatic approach and her unfaltering determination, Traci Maynard has proven time and time again that she’s a woman worth keeping an eye on.

And if she can act as an inspiration to other young and vibrant women, and  attract them to the IT industry, all the better.

Acer South Africa has thrown its full weight behind the Cancer Association of South Africa’s (CANSA’s) Coast 2 Coast 4 CANSA (C2C4C) initiative as a sponsor, in line with its commitment to acting as a caring corporate citizen.

The company will be providing a range of technology solutions to be used during the initiative as well as sponsorship for the project.

C2C4C sees five adventurers, including sporting stars, travel alongside 2800km of southern African coastline on jetskis to raise awareness about cancer as well as raise funds for CANSA to use in its fight against cancer.

The pilots include Barry Lewin (SA Surfski Paddler), Jason Ribbink (SA surfer and big wave rider), Lance Klusener (SA Cricketer), Mark Addison (Marine conservationist) and Russel Symcox (former Dolphins cricketer and Expedition Leader).

The jetski crew will be accompanied by four support vehicles manned by support crew members, medical and safety personnel, a television and media production crew, media liaisons and logistics co-ordinators.

Along the way, the crew will stop at Durban, East London, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town to promote healthy lifestyles and early cancer  detection. Their journey will begin in Ponto De Oura, Mozambique on April 20 and end at the Orange River on the West Coast border of Namibia.

Acer will be supporting this worthy initiative by supplying 14 notebooks to C2C4C expedition  to be used for a range of purposes. The notebooks Acer has donated include three Extensa 5635 professional notebooks, three environmentally friendly Timeline 8571 notebooks and eight TravelMate 6493 business notebooks.

Some will be used by CANSA administrative and support staff, while others will be used by the jetski crew to provide Web updates on their journey. Three machines will be auctioned  at a function to raise public awareness about cancer.

Says Graham Braum, Acer’s country manager and regional manager responsible for the Africa and Levant region: “The work that CANSA does in cancer research, cancer awareness programmes and prevention education support for cancer sufferers, and care services for cancer survivors is invaluable. In line with our commitment to giving something back to South Africa, we are proud to support CANSA and its fight against cancer in South Africa.”

Expedition Leader Russel Symcox commented, “It is an honor and a privilege to have Acer on board as our IT partner and major sponsor for our expedition. We are so grateful for their support and the sponsored Acer notebooks have proved to be invaluable to our team. They are being used by us several times a day to check weather forecasts, update our blog and website, communicate with our loved ones and also send out media statements.”

*For more information, see www.coast2coast4cansa.co.za or if you’d like to donate to Coast 2 Coast 4 CANSA, you can use the following banking details:

Cancer Association of South Africa

Nedbank

Acc no: 1924 238 381

Branch: 192- 405 (Eastgate)

Remember to always use C2C4C as reference

Acer South Africa has announced the immediate local availability of the new Aspire 8942G, Aspire 7740G and Aspire 5740G notebooks, all of which use the latest generation of Intel Core processors to deliver fast multitasking and smooth high-definition entertainment.

The new Aspire notebooks are equipped with the 2010 Intel Core processor family, engineered from the ground up to deliver excellent performance combined with energy efficiency and long battery life. They use advanced graphics solutions to render sharp and smooth visuals for high-definition movies and games.

John Geypen, product manager at Acer says: “Editing photos, sending e-mails, watching videos, creating documents and synchronising your smartphones: you can do all of it at once and quickly using one of the latest Aspire notebooks. The Aspire 8942G, Aspire 7740G and Aspire 5740G notebooks all deliver smart performance whether you’re trying to balance the books of your small business, enjoy a high-definition movie, play a game or surf the Internet.”

The new Aspire notebooks use CineCrystal panels to deliver high-definition visuals with superb contrast ratios, rich and natural colour, and sharp detail for video, images and text.

The Aspire 8942G offers an 18.4″ full HD panel with 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution, while the Aspire 7740G features a 17.3″ format with 1600 x 900 resolution and the Aspire 5740G offers a 15.6″ panel with 1366×768 resolution.

The LED backlight panel used in all three notebooks helps to reproduce even better images and increases readability in low light conditions; plus, it’s mercury-free and reduces power consumption.

The new Aspires also boast a Dolby®-optimised surround sound system with two built-in stereo speakers that feature optimised 3rd Generation Dolby Home Theater® audio enhancement. The True5.1-channel surround sound output will wrap you in the pure high-definition sound.

All three notebooks offer up to either 4 or 8 GB of DDR3 memory for ultrafast system response and seamless handling of multitasking demands. Each is equipped with a large capacity hard disk drive to provide generous space for your growing digital archive. A multi-in-one card reader that supports the most used card formats allows easy and speedy data transfer.

The new Aspires feature a host of network connectivity options including integrated Wi-Fi, Gigabit LAN and Bluetooth® 2.1, making it easy to connect whether you are home or on the go. The Acer CrystalEye high definition webcam with Acer Video Conference Manger and Acer PureZone technology make it a snap to interact with friends using videoconferencing.

With their smooth rounded curves, glossy covers and highly responsive keyboards, the new Aspires are easy on the eye and a pleasure to use. Their multi-gesture touchpads – with circular-motion scrolling, page flipping and pinch-action zoom – put swift, flawless navigation at your fingertips. With media control keys offering you easier access to entertainment.

1.    What is your view about 2010?

I am of the opinion, that the new decade will bring many opportunities, as we come out of a tough economic climate, a number of brutal earthquakes, wars, global warming disasters and so much more …

The IT market will show some signs of a rebound during 2010, but trading conditions will remain challenging throughout the year. Companies that keep improving their businesses and striving to be more flexible will be the ones that will excel in the year ahead. That said, we expect some exciting opportunities to arise pre-and-post from the FIFA World Cup and from the booming mobile computing market.

2.        What are you aiming to achieve this year?

The Acer Group’s ambition is to embrace mobility and make mobile internet access attractive, immediate and affordable for everyone, offering solutions covering all mobility profiles: notebooks, netbooks (”two-hand” devices) and smartphones (”one-hand” devices). We will strive to deliver innovative solutions that bring empowering technology within the grasp of as many South Africans as possible during 2010.

3.        What can we expect from Acer this year?

We will be focusing especially on growing our mobile business this year – not only on consolidating our highly successful notebook and netbook businesses, but also introducing products such as our smart handhelds to South Africa for the very first time.

Acer will also continue to refine its multibrand strategy, following the three strategic acquisitions we made in the past few years.  eTen allowed Acer to enter the smartphone segment, while Gateway and Packard Bell led to the development of Acer’s multibrand strategy, one that has proven successful in other markets but was unheard of in IT.

4.   Are you expecting any uptake of sales during FIFA Soccer tournament?

We are hoping that improved consumer confidence as well as business investment in IT leading up to the World Cup will boost the South African economy, and have a positive impact on our business.

5.   What new trends are you expecting to drive the IT channel?

Social networking is driving more and more requirements for mobility as users from all walks of life continually seek anywhere, anytime connectivity which in turn means more and more requirements for notebooks, netbooks and smartphones. More than nine million netbooks were shipped worldwide in Q3 2009, with analysts predicting that netbooks for children will reach close to 10 million by 2012. Predictions are also that 20% of mini-notebooks sold in mature markets by 2012 will be for children 12 years old and younger. Falling device prices, the evolution of new form factors tailored to different market segments, and cheaper and more abundant mobile Internet connectivity will keep driving this market forward during 2010. In addition, with this demand, will come a big opportunity for multiple storage and security products, as cloud computing surges in popularity and necessity.

6.        What advice will you give resellers?

Focus on your core business and delineate the value that you offer to your customers and business partners in a clear manner. Having a clearly defined market segmentation strategy to address the needs of a variety of customers remains important – you should be tailoring solutions and offerings for market segments rather than selling on technical specs. It is also critical to remain flexible and responsive to the needs of a fast-changing market.

Graham Braum, former country manager at Acer South Africa, has been promoted to regional manager responsible for the entire Africa and Levant (Jordan and Lebanon) region.

In his new role, Braum will be responsible for overseeing Acer’s growth across some 27 countries. The organisation expects to name a country sales manager for South Africa in the coming months to take on some of Braum’s current responsibilities at the local subsidiary.

Says Braum: “I’m looking forward to the challenge of growing Acer’s business across this region, which holds so much potential for us. Our presence in many of these countries is still relatively new, so we have plenty of scope to expand. And with affordable solutions such as our netbooks, we have the perfect set of offerings for emerging markets eager to join the Internet revolution.”

Braum joined Acer Africa in 1997 as the company’s first Corporate Account Manager, and subsequently developed his career with the group in a range of roles, ranging from technical and sales, through business development to general management. His career at Acer has taken him to some 25 countries throughout Middle East, Turkey and Africa.

Business Connexion Namibia was awarded the Acer reseller of the year at a glamorous ceremony in Athens, Greece.

Ferdi Graupe, Managing Director at Business Connexion Namibia says: “We are extremely proud to receive this prestigious award as it recognises our commitment and loyalty towards the Acer brand.  In 2010, we as Business Connexion Namibia are entering the 20^th year of Acer product distribution in Namibia and the quality, excellent supply chain and support structures offer our clients in Namibia excellent value of ownership. I can certainly say that there is much to admire and take note in Acer’s quick march up the global scale of computer manufacturers”

Taiwan-based Acer has been one of the shining stars on the personal computer scene for some years now and they’ve just recently taken over the number two spot in overall computer sales worldwide from competitors Dell. That is all computers including desktops, notebooks, and netbooks. According to Graham Braum, Country Manager Africa and Levant, Acer is “very close” to taking over the number one spot from HP and Acer aims to take the throne in 2011 in terms of the mobile PC segment.

“Acer’s notebooks are doing even better in our region – Middle East and Africa – where they are ranked number one,” he announced.

Three years ago Acer embarked on their multi-brand strategy, taking on board big brands, including Packard Bell (acquired in 2008), Gateway (acquired in 2007), and eMachines (also acquired in 2007, through the acquisition of Gateway). Increasing the product range has enabled Acer to reach a broad spectrum of customers and ensures they cater to all PC, notebook and netbook requirements, strengthening their market share.

Braum explains that the driving force behind Acer is its will to empower through technology, and bring the latest technologies available to their customers in all forms.

“We’re focused on what the customers want. So whatever technology is available we partner that with the right product. We ask our customers what they are looking for,” he says.

It’s clear from Acer and other companies that what customers are increasingly demanding is mobility. Braum said that approximately 220 million notebooks are sold worldwide out of the 400 million total PCs sold.

In terms of mobile phones, Braum explained that in the region of 1.2 billion units were sold worldwide with 270 million of those being smartphones. “We can estimate that there is a combined market of about 500 million units of “internet centric products”. Netbooks contribute about 15% of the total notebook market, and this is expected to increase to around 25% in 2012, where is will stabilise.” He added.

“Windows 7, launched by Microsoft, will be driving consumer demand for the foreseeable future,” said Braum. “The business segment will follow suit being more careful in their investments, it will take them a while longer to fully embrace Windows 7. According to Braum, whatever problems or “deficiencies” that were present in Windows Vista are not present in Windows 7. It will bring a “better customer experience,” he said.

An exciting new application being offered by Windows 7 is touch capability, which is built-in to the Operating System (OS). This is something that Acer will take full advantage of in both desktop and notebook computers. “Windows 7”, he continued, “also brings better performance and new functionality to the mobile computing segment, which in turn offers exciting opportunities for Acer.”