V3 Technology Awards 2014: Acer discusses business laptop plans

Firm up for Best Business Laptop at this year's awards

Acer has been shortlisted for Best Business Laptop at this year's V3 Technology Awards 2014, hoping that the Acer TravelMate B115P will score the firm a gong at next week's ceremony.

V3's Technology Awards take place in London on 28 November, and Acer has has been shortlisted in this category alongside Dell, Lenovo, Panasonic and Toshiba.

The Windows 8.1 TravelMate B115 features an 11.6in touchscreen, quad-core Intel Pentium processor and a 10-hour battery life.

V3 spoke to Gavin Parrish (pictured), business unit director at Acer, about the business laptop market, the struggles facing IT managers in deploying such kit, and the firm's plans for the year ahead.

V3: What do you see as the biggest trends in the business laptop market this year?

Parrish: A continued trend towards ultra mobile devices. Whilst windows tablets have shown some improvements during this year, a standard clamshell continues to be the format of choice. The drive continues to be the need to improve performance whilst increasing portability and, most importantly, battery life.

Touch has also grown this year, mainly through education, but appears to be becoming a request from SMBs more often.

What are the biggest concerns and challenges for firms and IT managers in the business tablet market?

Bring your own device is certainly an additional challenge for the IT manager. But the main challenge remains the pace of change in hardware and software.

What are your plans in the business laptop area for 2015?

We don't want to give too much away around our strategy but we will be focusing on the ultra portable segment.

We also expect Windows 10 to energise the commercial market to refresh from Windows 7.

What do you think will be the biggest technology trends in 2015?

The potential for businesses to adopt more versatile devices such as convertible clamshells and two-in-one devices.

The use of 'real sense' technology in CAD/CAM and the development of wearable technology in the business space. We foresee a lot of change in how people use and interact with IT over the coming years.