In 2016, Acer unveiled the world’s thinnest laptop Acer Swift 7 and by 2017 it plans to unveil Acer Predator 21 X, a stunning curved screen 21” gaming laptop in India. Beside this, IoT and VR will be a big focus globally for Acer, says Chandrahas Panigrahi, Sr. Director and Consumer Business Head, Acer India.
DT: What have been the key highlights of Acer India during the year 2016?
A: Year 2016 is one of the astonishing year for Acer as we came up with some marquee launches including gaming laptop, All-in-Ones, convertibles. At IFA, we unveiled path breaking products like the Acer Aspire Swift 7 - the world’s thinnest laptop, The Predator 21X; the world’s first curved screen laptop and the ultra slim Spin series convertible laptops. Likewise, we also worked closely with the government and research institutions like IIT, IISc etc. to deploy supercomputers for complex research requirement, one such supercomputer is Param Ishan which we developed for IIT-G.
DT: What is the central force which keeps partners and consumers loyal to your brand?
A: In the viciously competitive market, we believe innovation is the most significant factor that keeps partners and customers loyal to your brand and at Acer; our focus is purely towards innovation because innovation is the only thing that remains consistent, in regards to technology. Today, customers consider convenience and innovation as an important factor rather than only price. Another swaying factor is After Sales Services. At Acer, we have introduced various initiative to provide better services amongst customers. For instance, recently we launched an app for customers which enables customers to register and track their products, raise service requests, track repairs, warranty and view repair history, amongst others.
DT: Do you think that Government of India's 'Make-in-India' and 'Digital India' programs are seeing the light of day?
A: We announced plans to make India the manufacturing hub for Southeast Asia. We already manufacture PCs at our Pondicherry factory and support many initiatives to push PC penetration to rural India for a digital India.
DT: How will GST affect your business and the economy?
A: Specifically looking at IT industry, we do not see any impact on the goods as the proposed rate of 12% and 18% is almost the same of the combined rate of Duty and local VAT but the services is getting pushed to 18% that seems to be more expensive. Further, the impact would be on software exporters as most of the companies are engaged in export of software and have very negligible domestic sales.
DT: How does the channel help you to reach out to your potential customers? What's your channel strength?
A: We believe in growing with our channel partners. Our partners have played a crucial role in positioning Acer as a leader in the technology segment. We are aggressively strengthening our partnership with the channel community to expand our presence in smaller towns and opening Acer exclusive stores at a break-neck speed. We have also introduced many programs which help our partners to earn more at the back-end and sell products of higher selling price.
DT: What's Acer roadmap or strategy for the year 2017?
A: We unveiled the World’s thinnest laptop Acer Swift 7 and by 2017 we plan to unveil Acer Predator 21 X, a stunning curved screen 21” gaming laptop in India. Beside this, IoT and VR will be a big focus globally for Acer and we will be seeing these products coming to India soon. Our IoT products will range from helping children learn computer coding right from an early age to devices which help to care for the elderly.
