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Taiwan-based gadget-maker Asus is targeting 15-20 per cent market share in the overall consumer notebook segment by the end of this calendar year.
The company on Tuesday added two models to its affordable VivoBook laptops, one of which was launched in partnership with Flipkart.
“In terms of overall consumer notebooks’ share, we are at 11.9 per cent in India as per Microsoft data,” said Arnold Su, Head of Consumer Notebooks and ROG Business, Asus India. Laptops from the VivoBook series broadly fall under the ‘thin and light’ segment..
“In thin and light, we are the number one brand in India. Currently, we are at around 25 per cent (market share) in the segment. Our target is to reach 40 per cent by end of 2019,” Su said. These figures are for across the thin and light segment, spanning budget laptops to premium models.
“Earlier, thin and light was considered a very premium segment. Last year, we were the first brand to introduce thin and light under ₹30,000,” Su added.
Adarsh K Menon, Vice-President- electronics, private labels, and furniture at Flipkart, said that the e-commerce company has worked closely with Asus for the new VivoBook. “Because we sit on such a treasure trove of real-time customer information and preferences, we are able to work with partners like Asus and share that information with them and participate in the product design process,” Menon said.
BusinessLine has learned that Flipkart and Asus are in discussions to align online and offline market channels and this is in a “pilot phase”. However, neither of them provided details in this regard.
When it comes to customer trends in purchasing laptops, Menon said that Flipkart is seeing a lot of buyers prefer stronger and higher processors like the Intel i5 and i7 processors. He also said that growth in this segment is coming from all geographies and that Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities are also driving growth as they have the purchasing power but face availability issues.
Asus is also focussing on its offline market, as it plans to increase the total number of dealerships to 10,000 across the country by the end of this year from its current 6,000. It also aims to have a total of 200 exclusive stores, up from its current 100.
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