Acer India to target the SMEs, education, finance verticals aggressively

Mumbai:

The TravelMate TM 244FX is an Intel Celeron 2.6 GHz notebook and is equipped with 128 MB DDR RAM, 20 GB hard disk, integrated LAN and a 14.1 inch TFT monitor. The operating system is Red Hat Linux and it has a CD ROM, 56K Fax, 4 USB ports, an infrared port and a comprehensive suite of office applications from the open source. The notebook, for this limited time offer, is priced at Rs 37,999 and charges for the leather carry case and freight & insurance will cost an additional Rs. 2000.

S Rajendran, general manager, sales and marketing (consumer products group), Acer India (Pvt.) Ltd. said, "We want to make notebooks more pervasive in the Indian market due to its mobile productivity benefits. We are looking at aggressively increasing penetration in the SMEs, educational and finance verticals as there is tremendous potential in these markets and the rate of growth is extremely rapid."

Acer is looking to increase the availability and the affordability of entry-level notebooks. Acer was the first to launch the Celeron (TravelMate 240 series) based notebook at sub-50k in September 2003. It further opened up the P4 dominant notebook market with the launch of the TravelMate 243FX-P4 notebook at sub Rs 55k in December 2003. January 2004 witnessed further price moves making the entry level Celeron Notebook available at Rs 43999/-.

The market for notebooks at the entry-level is increasing at a rapid pace. According to IDC, the total number of notebooks sold in the first quarter of 2004 was 35,005 and the total sale of notebooks in 2003 was 80,000. This figure is expected to double in the current year.

Acer India has a wide range of notebooks in the TravelMate Series; TM 240 Series, Aspire 1350 series, TM 250 Series, TM 290 Series, TM C111 (Tablet PC) and the Acer Ferrari 3000. Entry-level Acer notebooks are targeted at the SME, SOHO, and educational sectors while the high-end tablet notebook is targeted at top-level management.