Asus mulls to open development centre to expand India mkt share

Asus, a leading Taiwanese electronics major, is mulling to open a development centre in India.

In an interaction with DH, Asus Regional Head (South Asia and Country Manager) Peter Chang said India is one of the biggest smartphone markets for the company.
“Currently, our product and software development is being done at our headquarters.

Also, we have taken around 20 people from India to our headquarters in this endeavour,” he said. “We are undertaking many software development based on the user experience from India. We are also planning a centre for product and software development in India,” he said.

The company holds 2.5% market share in the smartphone segment. “We are aggressively looking at expanding our market share. We want to increase it to almost 5% in the next one year or so. We want to be among the top five smartphone providers in the country in the next one or two years,” he said.

The Indian smartphone segment is highly competitive with the sizable presence of around 25 companies from India and China. “Currently, the Indian smartphone market is around 10 crore units a year. Asus holds a market share of around 60 lakh units. It will increase to 12 crore units in the next one or two years and Asus expects to hold a share of around one crore units out of it,” he said.

The company is strengthening its go-to-market strategy. “We would like to work with our partners, who are around 1,000 in numbers across India. We have employed 100 people to work closely with our partners. They help our partners design their shops so that the visibility can be improved,” he said.

He said Asus operates 120 own showrooms to give customers direct access to its products. “Instead of increasing the number of showrooms we will be opening two or three customer experience centres. We have 150 service centres to serve our clients,” Chang said. Asus’ main business is the laptop segment, and it holds 10% market share in the segment.

Asus on Tuesday launched multiple models in the ZenFone 3 generation. The company also unveiled its third generation of the  Zenbook series.

On opening the manufacturing facility in India, Chang said Asus is having a manufacturing contract with Foxconn in India. Asus is one of the many companies like Xiaomi, Motorola,  Lenovo, Karbonn, Celkon and Gionee, which have announced their plans to manufacture smartphones in India.

ASUS, which started as a computer mother board manufacturer in Taiwan, has more than 13,600 employees around the globe today with a research and development team of 4,500 engineers. In India, Asus has 800 employees. The company’s global revenues for 2014 was approximately $14 billion.

 The pricing of mobile models— the 5.2-inch ZenFone 3 (ZE520KL) priced at Rs 21,999; the 5.5-inch ZenFone 3 (ZE552KL) at Rs 27,999; the ZenFone 3 Ultra (ZU680KL) at Rs 49,999; the ZenFone 3 Laser (ZC551KL) at Rs 18,999. The most premium model, named ZenFone 3 Deluxe (ZS570KL), is available priced at Rs 49,999 with a Special Edition variant priced at Rs 62,999.

 The pricing of tablet— ASUS ZenBook 3, an ultra-sleek and lightweight notebook with a premium aluminum design and Asus Transformer 3 Pro, a versatile PC.

The ZenBook 3 and Transformer 3 Pro will be available from October 2016 onwards across all ASUS exclusive stores, channel partners and online retailers. The newly launched smartphones will start at different price ranges.