Notwithstanding the unglamourous state of personal computers which has been replaced by smartphones, Taiwanese electronics major Acer is aggressively expanding its retail presence in India as it plans to up the ante in the category of ‘thin and light’ gaming devices. The company, which runs an exclusive digital gaming tournament named after its gaming computer Predator in India, said it is seeing sales growth of 50 per cent per cent year-on-year in the gaming segment even as the overall consumer business has grown just by 12-15 per cent. In FY20, it expects to maintain the growth momentum in gaming, if not more, and its overall consumer business to grow 20 per cent.
“We have been the number one gaming brand in India in a seven-horse race for the past two years (Q4 2017- Q3 2019) with a market share of 26.48 per cent in the overall consumer gaming notebooks category,” Chandrahas Panigrahi, head of consumer business, Acer told The Sunday Standard.
This year, Acer launched a wide array of gaming laptops with price ranging between `60,000 and `4.5 lakh in India. The eight new devices — Nitro 5, Nitro 7, Predator Helios 300, Predator Triton 500, Predator Triton 900, Predator Helios 700 and Nitro Stream — feature advanced technologies built with an emphasis on intelligent designs.
“These products are bound to excite gamers and take gaming experience to a whole new level. Going forward, we will focus on the premium gaming laptop segment. But, this does not mean we will vacate any price points. The entry and mid-level markets are quite big too,” said Panigrahi, adding gaming has lately come of age in India — breaking the social tolerance barrier — and once you experience it on smartphones, you will crave a bigger screen experience with top-of-the-line specifications.
Additionally, the company is expanding retail footprint as it eyes to add 1,500 stores to take its total store count to 5,000 by end of FY20. “We want to make our gaming laptops accessible to customers everywhere. Right now, we have 100 exclusive stores and our products are available in 3,500 stores. We are working with all our channels like Amazon, Paytm, Chroma, Reliance to strengthen our presence,” Panigrahi added. On the commercial side, the company has bagged orders worth $25 million from the Tamil Nadu government for implementation of PCs in its schools.
Expanding footprint
The Taiwanese company eyes to add 1,500 stores for taking total store count to 5,000 by end of FY20. Currently, it has 100 exclusive stores while its products are available in 3,500 stores