 "Arnold Su, Vice President, Consumer & Gaming PC, System Business Group, Asus India")
Taiwanese personal computer (PC) maker Asus is looking to claw back market share in India with a little push from its artificial intelligence-enabled PCs, which the firm believes will comprise five to 10 per cent of its overall shipment by the end of this year.
The company has recently launched India’s first-ever Copilot Plus AI laptop. Consumer demand for these devices has defied expectations and the company is doubling its forecast for AI PCs in India, said a senior executive at the firm.
“The demand (for AI PCs) has been beyond our expectations. So, now we are planning to increase the supply of our next generation AI PCs to India. We will double our forecasts. By the end of this year, our target is that AI PCs should account for between 5-10 per cent of our total shipments. And from next year onwards, this will gradually increase,” Arnold Su, Vice President- Consumer and Gaming PC, System Business Group, Asus India, told Business Standard. India’s PC market, which includes desktops, notebooks, and workstations, grew 2.6 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to 3.07 million shipments in the first quarter (Q1) of calendar year 2024, according to data from the International Data Corporation (IDC).
Asus holds the fifth spot in the Indian PC segment, with a market share of 5.9 per cent during Q1 this year, down from 6.6 per cent in the year-ago period, according to IDC. The Taipei-headquartered firm is not a contender in the commercial PC segment but was the second biggest player in the consumer segment behind HP in 2023.
“The main reason for the decline is that we are fine tuning our overall inventory. We held on to excess inventory after last year’s festival season, and, therefore, decided to correct our inventory levels before our AI PCs came into the picture. We now expect to see good growth in Q2, and even better numbers going forward,” said Su.
Su claims that Asus has grown between 3-4 per cent in the first half of 2024, ahead of the overall market.
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“Originally, we expected growth this year to be in double digits. Unfortunately, that has not happened. However, from the second half (H2) onwards, we expect things to be better driven by AI PCs. Even in H1, lots of customers have been waiting for AI PCs to come into the market before they make a purchase. So, going forward, the market should be better,” he said.
Asus launched India’s first Copilot Plus laptop in the form of the Asus Vivobook S 15 OLED last week. The company is planning to launch another 5-10 AI PCs in India this year.
However, the higher price bands of AI PCs may prove to be a bottleneck for consumers in 2024.
“This year, the price band (for AI PCs) will be on the higher side. So, AI will be a growth engine but may not be a major top-margin contributor. Those will come from gaming and creator segments,” said Su.
According to Su, gaming makes up 32-35 per cent of Asus’ overall business in India, while the creator segment comprises between 5-10 per cent of the firm’s overall business.
“Before Covid, gaming laptops only occupied 6-7 per cent of India’s consumer PC market. Today, gaming devices are 20 per cent of the market. During the same period, the average selling price (ASP) of PCs has gone from Rs 35,000 to Rs 55,000. ASPs of gaming PCs are almost double that of normal PCs,” said Su.
Higher ASPs of gaming devices, coupled with the current wave of premiumisation prevailing in the market where end users are willing to spend more, is expected to drive margins for Asus this year.
 "Online Gaming")
 "ASUS")
 "artificial intelligence machine learning")
 "HP, Hewlett Packard")
