Asus eyes 60% growth in India PC biz in H2, bets on gaming, thin-and-light notebook categories

Taiwanese tech major Asus on Wednesday said it expects to clock 60 per cent growth in consumer PC business in India during the second half of the year on the back strong demand for its gaming and thin-and-light notebooks.

The company - which competes with the likes of HP, Dell and Lenovo in the Indian market - said it registered a growth of 32 per cent in the first half of the year.

"The consumer PC market declined by about 19 per cent (as per industry estimates) but we grew 32 per cent in the first half. We are seeing strong growth in the gaming and thin-and-light categories, and we expect our growth in the second half to be 60 per cent," Asus India Business Development Manager (PC and Gaming) Arnold Su told PTI.

He added that in July-August alone, the company had seen a growth of 85 per cent in business compared to the same period last year.

"With festive season ahead, we are confident of a strong performance. We are strengthening our product portfolio and our strong presence in both the online and offline channels will contribute to our performance," he said.

July-October accounts for about 45 per cent of the company's sales in the country, he added.

The company on Wednesday unveiled three new laptops under its VivoBook series, priced Rs 30,990 onwards.

Su cited the example of the gaming category that has grown from about 40,000 units in 2016 to about 1.4 lakh units last year. This year, the category is expected to touch shipment of 2-2.5 lakh units.

According to research firm IDC, a total of 3.4 million units of PCs were shipped in the April-June 2019 quarter. Of this, commercial segment accounted for 2.43 million units and registered a growth of 108 per cent in the said quarter.

The consumer PC market, on the other hand, declined by 14 per cent year-on-year in the said quarter.

Lenovo led the overall market with 46 per cent share, mainly backed by ELCOT (education deal) shipment in the commercial segment. This was followed by HP (22 per cent), Dell (14 per cent), Acer (10 per cent) and Asus (2 per cent).