Israel Matzav: Acer Computers wipes Israel off the map

Acer Computers wipes Israel off the map

Acer computers is based in Taiwan. A reader of the blog was looking for support for his Israeli-bought Acer netbook (with Hebrew keyboard) and was unable to locate his country on Acer's international support map.

Here's Acer's web site:

And here's what you get if you click on Middle East (by the way that web page is located in the United Arab Emirates):


Note the imaginary country that begins with the letter "p" and the missing country that begins with the letter "i."

Now, what's worse is that if you assume that Acer has an Israeli cite and click on acer.co.il, you get taken here and you end up back at the Middle East page.

Perhaps this has something to do with Acer's taking a greater interest in 'Palestine' than in Israel.

The winning of this bid can be attributed to the superior technical know-how, as well as the infrastructure and support of New Techni Comp, Acer's local channel partner and committed IT reseller, based in the bustling city-centre of Ramallah.

Ramallah is about ten minutes from my home, but I can't go there because it's Area A and Israelis cannot go to Area A. Fortunately, I also don't own an Acer computer. I don't believe Mrs. Carl does either, but hers is serviced by the store from which she bought it (mine was bought in the US and brought back as luggage - we also each own an IBM - Lenovo laptop and I have another computer in our storage room whose manufacturer's name escapes me but could be an Acer).

This is not an isolated phenomenon in this part of the world, which does not make Acer's actions any more forgivable.

For example, Adobe has a partnership with Bir Zeit University, which is listed as being in "Palestinian occupied territories," which I suppose is slightly better than the imaginary country of 'Palestine.'



But that information is probably inputted by Bir Zeit itself.

Here's Cisco's web site:

Note the imaginary country of 'Palestine' which appears in the emerging markets.

But Cisco Israel has its own web page and Cisco has bought several companies in Israel. In fact, if you go to their partners' page, the pull down menu includes both Israel and 'Palestinian territories - occupied.' But at least, unlike Acer, you can find service in Israel on the web page.

One more. Here's Hewlett-Packard:

Note that Israel appears by itself, while 'Palestine' is with a bunch of other countries, all of whom have one phone number (which is also in the United Arab Emirates).

Of the companies we've looked at, only Acer wipes Israel off the map.

Hmmm.
Israel Matzav: Acer Computers wipes Israel off the map