Can't Innovate? Litigate! 3Com Goes Patent Lawsuit Ballistic

from the ghosts-of-companies-past dept

Remember back when 3Com was a big innovative company coming up with interesting new products? What happened since then? Well, as we've seen over and over again, once a company runs into trouble continuing to innovate, its last ditch effort to stay in business is to start suing everyone for patent infringement. Step up to the plate, 3Com. The company set up a subsidiary specifically for suing other companies for patent infringement and just sued Acer, Apple, Asus, Dell, Fujitsu, Gateway, HP, Sony, and Toshiba. Oh, and take a guess where this "subsidiary" set up shop? East Texas... of course. All the better to file patent lawsuits apparently...

Filed Under: ethernet, innovation, patents
Companies: 3com, acer, apple, asus, dell, fujitsu, gateway, hp, sony, toshiba

Palm Realizes It's Not Apple; Closes Retail Shops

from the so-much-for-that-plan dept

Over the last decade, plenty of technology hardware companies thought it would make sense to open their own retail shops. Sony, Gateway, Palm and Apple all went down that path. Of that list, only Apple has been able to turn those retail stores into something valuable. Gateway was the first, but its retail effort failed miserably. Sony's retail effort was always based more on the idea that the stores are not there to sell products, but just to display them. Sony has always admitted that the stores were more about brand and product awareness than sales -- but that's partly because it doesn't want to piss off its channel, so it prices everything quite high in its own stores. Apple doesn't have that problem, as it has total control over its distribution channel and retail pricing. Of course, the difference here is that Apple's stores and products are designed so people actually want them.

And then there's Palm. Palm used to always be compared to Apple, back in the day. But, that was back in the day when Apple was a struggling computer company. Since Steve Jobs reinvented Apple as being cool again, those comparisons sort of disappeared. Its own retail strategy was clearly an attempt to copy Apple, but without the cool products (or the cool store design) it never did anything useful for the company. About the only surprise coming out of Palm's decision to shut down its retail stores is that it took this long to decide to pull the plug.

Filed Under: failure, retail stores
Companies: apple, gateway, palm, sony

Acer, Gateway Continue To Roll Up Every Has-Been PC Maker

from the who-else-is-out-there...? dept

Anyone have a circa 1993 copy of Computer Shopper magazine/catalog out there? You might want to open to any random old page and see who Gateway is going to merge with next. Back in August, Acer announced plans to buy Gateway -- and while the announcement included some info about intentions to also roll Packard Bell into the deal, that part of the deal has only just been confirmed. Basically, Acer is giving Gateway the money to buy Packard Bell, which will then be included in the Acer acquisition. Of course, Gateway also bought eMachines a few years back, though that's one company that didn't exist back in the 1993 Computer Shopper era. However, if you do remember Computer Shopper in those days, it was dominated by ads from these companies, along with Dell and Micron. Are there still any other mostly forgotten also-ran PC makers from the early 90's that are available for the new Acer/Gateway/PackardBell to buy?

Filed Under: computers
Companies: acer, gateway, packard bell

Gateway Gone But Cows To Stick Around

from the end-of-the-line dept

At one point, news that Gateway had been acquired by Acer would have been a significant development in the computer industry. But it's a sign of how far the company has fallen that the move isn't expected to have any material impact on the company's competitors. Basically, Acer, based in Taiwan, is looking to expand its footprint in North America and Europe and it was able to pick up the distant #4 in the US computer market for just $710 million. Because margins are low across the industry, every player is in a desperate race to keep volume high. At one point, Gateway tried to break out of its core business with an ill-conceived foray into consumer electronics, but it was eventually forced to return to its roots. However, things might not change much from the perspective of customers. Owing in part to Gateway's recognizable brand (the cow print boxes), Acer plans to continue, if not expand, the Gateway line.

Filed Under: pcs
Companies: acer, gateway