Acer: PC brands need to find cure for Apple mutant virus

Acer founder Stan Shih made some amusing comments about Apple at a press conference in Taiwan. DigiTimes reports that while Shih praised Apple's creativity and innovation, he compared Apple's iPad and iPhone products to mutant viruses, which are difficult to find a cure for in the short-term.

Shih is convinced that PC brands will eventually find a way to become immune for the "Apple virus", because Apple products aren't open enough, and he sees the rapid growth of Google's Android operating system as one of the factors that prove that PC brands will eventually be able to beat Apple.

Shih pointed out that Apple deserves to be respected, since it has a completely different strategy than other PC brands. Apple CEO Steve Jobs has always been looking for revolution, while other PC brands evolved naturally and are developing products in a more solid way, Shih commented. But based on the historical experience, a market that evolves naturally will always turn out to be much stronger, according to Shih.

Shih used the example of the competition between Microsoft's Windows and Apple's Macintosh OS and noted the Apple has always looked down on Windows and believes it lacks creativity. But Windows' open platform has attracted the adoption of most PC brands, Shih said adding that, Apple's PC market has turned out to be limited, with a market share far less than the open Windows platform group. Shih also brought up the example of the competition between video tape formats, pointing out that the open VHS standard won against the closed Betamax format.

Additionally, Shih also predicted that US-based PC vendors will eventually quit the PC market to turn their focus to the service industry, while Taiwanese players will need to start considering how to create added-value, and not purely produce highly-replaceable hardware products. He gave Apple's integration between hardware and software as an example that all PC brands can learn from.