Shih’s comments amplify a crucial difference between companies that are innovating (Apple and Google) and companies that are sticking with what they know (like his own):
Commenting on Apple bringing tablet PC and smartphone products into the PC market to compete with PC players and creating a great impact on PC demand, Shih pointed out that PCs are the base of the IT industry and tablet PCs are also developed from the base; therefore, in the future, products will still need to go through the PC platform to create even more add-on value.
It is true that PCs are the base of the IT industry, but IT has always been about the bleeding edge and staying ahead of the curve. Since we live in a “post-PC era”, Acer and other companies (read: Microsoft) ought to think about the future, instead of the present. In 20 years, we may say that smartphones are the base of the IT industry.