Acer, the world's fourth largest PC maker, has scoffed at Microsoft for nurturing the dreams of becoming a rival to Apple  by building its own devices saying that Microsoft was trying to copy some of Apple's strategy, but it was doubtful it would succeed, according to Reuters.

In an interview Oliver Ahrens, Acer's senior VP and president for Europe, Middle East and Africa, instead advised its software partner to focus on its new operating system. 

"I don't think it will be successful because you cannot be a hardware player with two products," he said in an interview, adding that the former darling of the tech sector would also have to adapt its brand to compete with Apple. 

"Microsoft is working with two dozen PC vendors worldwide, including the local guys, whereas Apple is alone, it can more or less do what it wants," he said. "Microsoft is a component of a PC system. A very important component but still a component." 

Microsoft announced on Monday that it would design and sell its own "Surface" tablets to showcase Windows 8 and take on Apple and Google in devices that are capturing more and more of the computing market. 

It kept PC makers largely in the dark about its plans, according to Reuters sources, marking a radical departure from its previous close collaboration with its hardware partners. 

"I don't think it will be successful because you cannot be a hardware player with two products," he said in an interview, adding that the former darling of the tech sector would also have to adapt its brand to compete with Apple. 

"Microsoft is working with two dozen PC vendors worldwide, including the local guys, whereas Apple is alone, it can more or less do what it wants," he said. "Microsoft is a component of a PC system. A very important component but still a component." 

He expressed apprehensions that Microsoft would shift resources to building a consumer hardware brand and retail operation, and in the process take its eye off the ball in making sure Windows 8 was a success for the PC industry. 

"Instead of enhancing the user experience for Win 8 they open a new battlefield," he said. 

"I worry that this will lead into a defocus internally for Microsoft, and then we have to suffer because we are working with their products."