Yesterday I read about Acer buying Gateway. I have to say I was a little sad.
I bought my first computer about 10 years ago (in some ways it feels like a hundred). It was a Gateway laptop. I reviewed a lot of material before I made the decision and was happy when I decided to go with Gateway. I loved their story and their reputation for quality products and great service. I loved their brand.
10 years later and I still remember the name of the guy who took my order. His name was Angus. Of course he might have been pulling my leg considering that Gateway shipped it's product in white boxes dotted with black cow spots.
Angus had a great personality and asked me tons of questions while we went through the order process (for those of you whose memories don't go back that far, buying a computer took a really long time). I liked him so much I later helped him get a deal on a hotel room for his honeymoon in Vegas (I worked in the gaming industry at the time). He even sent me pictures from the wedding.
I had the box shipped to me at work and I remember how excited I was to get it. Buying a Gateway made me feel like I was in a special club. A tribe, Guy would call it now.
Like many companies, Gateway dropped the ball on follow-up. By the time I bought from them they had been in business for about 10 years so they should have thought about how they'd keep in touch with customers and been ready to keep them in the Gateway family.
That little laptop really produced. I eventually passed it on to my brother who had it upgraded at least once. He gave it away recently.
And yet, when I was ready to buy a desktop, I ended up going with Dell. My brother had been telling me he had problems with getting good service when he called. I was seeing declining performance reviews for their product and I made the jump to Dell. (I'm so fed up with Windows right now I'm ready to make the next purchase a Mac)
Gateway has gone from a stock price high of $61+ a share to somewhere around $1.70+. Yikes. Sad.
So what does Acer's purchase mean? Will it make a difference? How could Gateway have been rescued?
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