New Acer CEO disappoints with lack of detail on future plans

 Investors looking for specifics as to the future of Acer Inc, the world's No.4 PC vendor, came away disappointed when the new CEO spent more time delivering a history of the company's past mistakes than on where it was headed.

Jason Chen, the latest executive to step through the revolving door to the CEO's office, said during his first press conference on Monday that the Taiwanese company's biggest mistake was investing too early in touch-panels and ultrabooks and not realizing the extent to which tablet computers like Apple Inc's iPad would disrupt the PC industry.

"We wanted to stimulate demand using new technology and we took the initiative more aggressively than anybody else, to the point where we got hurt," Chen said. "Hopefully we won't repeat the same mistake we made before."

Chen is the latest appointment in a series of top-level shake-ups at the struggling firm. In 2011, Italian-born Gianfranco Lanci resigned as CEO and in November, then-CEO J.T. Wang also resigned to be replaced by then-corporate president Jim Wong. Wong, however, stepped down only weeks later.

Acer has been struggling with losses for several quarters, including a T$13.12 billion ($437.98 million) deficit in the third quarter of 2013. In a sign of turmoil shaking the industry, rival Dell made waves early last year when it announced it would go private in a buyout led by founder Michael Dell.