What you need to know
- Acer's Tiffany Huang predicts that the global chip shortage will continue into 2022.
- The chip shortage has caused Acer to prioritize devices built for education and work over gaming.
- Acer can "only fill 50% of the worldwide demand" on any given day, according to Huang.
The current global chip shortage continues to affect PC makers across the industry. NVIDIA predicts the shortage will last most of this year. Intel and TSMC have longer estimates extending into 2022. Dell's founder recently said that the shortage will "probably continue for a few years." Now, Acer's Tiffany Huang has shared thoughts on the shortage.
Huang, Acer's co-chief operating officer, spoke with The Guardian about the global chip shortage and how it's affected Acer.
"It will continue to be slow until the first quarter or second quarter of next year," said Huang. "We have a severe shortage, and it's not simply just to make sure every family has a device to use, every person has to have a device for working or education."
Huang explained that "On any day [Acer] can only fill 50% of the worldwide demand." With the limited ability to meet demand, Acer has focused more on devices for work and education.
"We shipped millions of education devices last year [and] this year. That is simply because we believe people really deserve a right to be able to continue their living and learning," said Huang.
That shift to devices for education and work was made easier due to Acer being smaller than some tech giants, such as HP and Lenovo. Acer's Jerry Kao said that due to its size Acer is "very nimble" and "very agile" in a recent interview with Windows Central.
