Acer Channel Chief Vows ‘Pre-Tariff’ Pricing Holds For Recent Deals

“So all of the big deals that we've been working on for the past year, six months, two or three months, even as early as two or three weeks ago, we're not marking those prices up as the tariffs increase. There are strategic, big deals that we've been working with our channel partners on, we're locking those grant letters in pre-tariff,” Acer channel chief Philip Burger told CRN.

Acer will not increase prices on deals that have been in the works with channel partners prior to February, even as the company’s CEO said it would probably hike prices going forward as all imports from China are hit with 10-percent U.S. tariffs.

“So all of the big deals that we've been working on for the past year, six months, two or three months, even as early as two or three weeks ago, we're not marking those prices up as the tariffs increase,” Acer channel chief Philip Burger (pictured) told CRN on Wednesday. “There are strategic, big deals that we've been working with our channel partners on [and] we're locking those grant letters in pre-tariff.”

The Trump Administration announced a 10-percent tariff increase on items shipped from China that went into effect earlier this month. Acer CEO Jason Chen told The Telegraph this week that the PC maker would need to “adjust the end-user price to reflect the tariff.”

“We think 10-percent probably will be the default price increase because of the import tax. It’s very straightforward,” Chen told the newspaper.

Burger, vice president of U.S. channel at New Taipei City, Taiwan-based Acer, said the company – which is fifth in market share, but a leading supplier of Chromebooks to education – has vowed to expand its partner program this year, tariffs or no tariffs.

“We felt like we had some good machinery in place and we are keeping that going. Even in the face of maybe constricting margin because of tariffs we are keeping that going into ‘25 and we’re adding new categories. So that’s the first thing on our reseller strategy,” he said.

Market research firm Gartner previously told CRN that the additional levies would hit PC sales.

“With around 75 percent of PCs manufactured in China, the tariffs would lead to increased costs for distributors and retailers, who are likely to pass these costs down to businesses and consumers,” Ranjit Atwal, senior research director at Gartner, told CRN. “This would lead to higher PC prices, reducing demand and overall market spending due to the price sensitivity of PCs, while also delaying the Windows 11 hardware refresh.”

Acer is focused on meeting the expected massive demand in the SMB and education verticals this year, Burger told CRN. Acer reported revenue of $457.9 million in January. Meanwhile, the IDC Final Historical Q4 '24 PC report showed Acer's Chromebooks shipments ranked No. 1 worldwide.

“It's going to be a busy year,” he said. “We're 100-percent indirect, like I said, and I'll probably say 10 other times over the next week or two, as I'm talking to new partners that we're onboarding. It is something that they really appreciate. We're very well aligned with integrating AI into all of our devices, be it Chrome and Gemini or Microsoft and Copilot. … With the road maps, the channel programs, and our route to market – 100-percent through the channel, all in – it's a winning formula for us.”

Burger said because Acer relies on the channel so heavily, it has structured rewards to incentives for partners at every stage of the sales process when they bring the company into deals.

“We have big grids, rebates, SPIF, MDF,” he said. “Part of that Accelerate Partner Program is also a VIR [volume incentive rebates] based on performance. So there's five, six, seven different levers you can pull – front end, back end, mid-range – based on the partners you're bringing in. When you add all of that up, it's pretty lucrative.”

One of the biggest Acer differentiators is its Temple, Texas facility – previously home to Texas Instruments’ notebook division – that houses 500 support technicians who service the company’s PCs, including a K-12 education support division focused on supply chain, training, and spare parts just for that vertical.

“It's at no cost to the schools as well,” he said. “Some of our competitors charge for that. So it's U.S.-based. They're not asking if the device is plugged in or turned on. They're getting right to the point, they can have a conversation … It makes the channel partners sticky too, and they can provide value of pushing these programs out, because Acer itself can't enable all of the schools with this. So partners are pitching our services as well. It's just a great ecosystem as it all connects together.”