Acer threatens to abandon Microsoft Windows on its desktop PCs over Surface

Acer has publicly threatened to abandon Microsoft Windows for its desktop PCs, following Microsoft’s announcement that it would enter the hardware business with its Surface tablet.

According to the Financial Times, Acer CEO and chairman JT Wang said:

“We have said [to Microsoft] think it over. Think twice. It will create a huge negative impact for the ecosystem and other brands may take a negative reaction. It is not something you are good at so please think twice.”

Acer’s president of personal computer global operations, Campbell Kan, said:

“If Microsoft … is going to do hardware business, what should we do?

“Should we still rely on Microsoft, or should we find other alternatives?”

SmartCompany recently reported that Acer is not one of the five hardware vendors Microsoft has licensed to build tablets based on the Windows RT platform.

The threats come a week after Microsoft admitted in a filing to the US Securities and Exchanges Commission that its decision to enter the hardware business with the Surface tablet risked straining relationships with its PC hardware partners.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Microsoft’s close relationships with hardware vendors helped it establish DOS and later Windows as an industry standard, in the face of tough competition from competing desktop platforms including Apple Macintosh, IBM OS/2, Amiga, NeXTStep, Linux and BeOS.