Acer aims for third slot in Indian PC market

ACER, the number four PC vendor globally, is gunning for the third spot in the Indian market with its current position hovering between fourth and fifth.The top three in the are held by HP, HCL and Lenovo respectively, with the fourth and fifth spot alternating between Dell and Acer.“We are looking at achieving the number three position in two years,” said, Acer India MD WS Mukund.The firm has been in the Indian market since 1999 with a manufacturing plant in Pondicherry. It provides an array of products ranging from laptops, desktops, servers and peripherals. According to IDC India, in the overall client PC (notebooks and desktops combined), HP retained the top slot with a market share of 21%, followed by HCL a 14% and Lenovo at 9% in terms of unit shipments. The total shipments in the Indian market crossed 5 million units in 2006, recording 25% year-on-year growth with notebook PCs touching nearly one million units. Acer India is looking at expanding its retail presence in the major metros as well as smaller towns. Currently it has around 252 retail outlets in 109 towns and this would be expanded to over 350 outlets. Besides, it is also looking at expanding its presence in the large format retail stores and has been in talks with a host of retail players.The Acer official said most of its growth would be coming outside the top 16 cities in India as there is higher adoption of PCs in the B & C category towns from home and SME segment. Mr Mukund said the growth drivers for PC will be the latpops and form factor, those PC which would consume lesser space as well as being aesthetic.Acer traditionally has been very strong in the laptop segment and is the number one player in 17 countries. Even IDC has projected that 2007 is also expected to be the year when overall PC shipments through retail outlets, especially the notebook PC form factor would see a higher traction.

Courtesy: EconomicTimes
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