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Gateway dropping direct sales
As goes the mothership, so goes Gateway.
The company said this morning it will stop selling computers directly to end users. Like Acer, its parent company, Gateway now will sell products solely through retailers, partners and other online sites.
In a release, Acer’s U.S. general manager Mark Hill said the company is “shifting Gateway’s distribution method to better align with Acer’s successful global strategy, which was built upon an indirect model.”
Over the past three years, Acer has been one of the fastest-growing computer makers on the planet. While it ships far fewer PCs than Hewlett-Packard and Dell, its volumes have grown much more quickly.
Analysts have attributed much of the growth to a strong lineup of notebook computers and its presence in retail stores.
Acer continued to gain ground in the most-recent quarter, according to two research firms that track PC shipments. However, its growth has slowed in the U.S. as it digests its October 2007 acquisition of Gateway.
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