Acer plans to release new cloud apps in June
By Chris Lacey
Acer has plans to start a new service called “Build Your Own Cloud.” The service will be available to consumers in late June, and will have a collection of apps that will be compatible with mobile devices and PCs.
The company talked about its cloud strategy on Thursday. They showed off apps that is being marketed under the “ab” brand, this stands for “Acer” and “Build Your Own Cloud.”
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The products will be a big update to their already existing cloud-based apps. They allow users to sync files and multimedia on PCs and mobile devices.
This service won’t be similar to online storage services like Dropbox or Google Drive, as Acer will save all of the data directly to the user’s PC. Instead, this will function as a private, mini data center.
The first four apps will focus on photos, music, files and Microsoft Office documents, which will allow people to share and archive data.
They also want customers of other companies to download the apps as well.
“Before, only Acer device owners could use the apps. But from now on, you don’t have to own an Acer device,” said Maverick Shih, president of the company’s Build Your Own Cloud and tablet business.
These new cloud apps are free, but Acer would like to include extra features that users will have to pay for.
“The day we sell the device to the consumer is when we really start doing business with them,” he said. “Before, the old Acer or other hardware companies would just sell the hardware and say ‘bye-bye, don’t find me again,” Shih also added.
It seems that Acer is trying to do something new by providing these apps for people to use, and this could help them turn their fortunes around.