Asus to challenge top position in Indian consumer notebook segment this year

PC maker Asus is eyeing top position in consumer notebook market this year on account of continued expansion of retail footprint and widening of portfolio in the gaming segment, a senior official of the company said.

Asus India, Business Head, Consumer and Gaming PC, System Business Group, Arnold Su told PTI that the company plans to scale up exclusive stores in India to 300 by the end of 2023 from 200 at present as well as expand other formats of retail stores in a bid to reach consumers.

"This year is a very important year for us. This year we want to challenge the number 1 position in India. This makes overall business expansion very important. Right now we have 200 exclusive stores in India. Now we are aiming to touch 300 exclusive stores. Every quarter we will add 20-25 stores," Su said.

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According to market research firm IDC, Asus held third position in the consumer notebook segment behind HP and Lenovo with a share of 15.6 per cent and a year-on-year growth rate of 20 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2022.

As per IDC, a continued focus on offline channel expansion helped Asus make substantial gains.

"To build deeper roads, we are not only targeting urban markets but also suburban markets in tier II and tier III cities to establish multiple touchpoints. Moreover, suburbs often have a higher demand for convenience and accessibility, which our retail stores aim to provide," Su said.

Besides exclusive stores, Asus plans to increase premium shop-in-shop outlets to 250 from 150 at present, shops where the company puts up its own kiosks to 2,000 from 1,200 at present and dealers' shop network to 8,000 by December from 6,000 at present.

The growth of the traditional PC market, inclusive of desktops, notebooks, and workstations, remained almost 0.3 per cent year-over-year in 2022 to 14.9 million units.

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Su said that Asus has been focussing on gaming as it is a growing segment in India with around 16-17 per cent market share in the consumer segment.

"In the second half of 2022, we saw a decline in the consumer notebook segment but in the meantime gaming laptops continued to grow. We are the number one brand in gaming laptops. Our strength continues to grow which means we will gain because we are in a growing segment," he said.

Su said that besides the gaming segment, Asus will push premium features into the affordable range to push the business this year.

"At CES (Consumer Electronics Show), we launched laptoo with 3D naked eye display. Normally for 3D one needs to wear glass. We plan to introduce this technology to India is the second of this year," he said.