Taiwanese personal computer (PC) maker Asus is reportedly in talks with local contract manufacturers to begin laptop production in India, leveraging the production-linked incentive (PLI). The company is aiming to capture 20% market share in the consumer segment this year.
“We will need to work with the EMS (electronics manufacturing services) players to leverage the PLI (production-linked incentive) scheme… Talks are already ongoing,” the Economic Times quoted Arnold Su, business head, consumer and gaming PC, system business group, Asus India as saying.
He said the company hopes to close a deal at the earliest.
Asus is the fourth largest consumer PC brand in India, and it grew nearly 40% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2021. Citing IDC figures, Su said the company’s market share in the entire consumer PC was around 9% in the quarter ended June.
In the consumer laptop segment, Asus’ market share grew to 10% in that quarter. Su said that for the third quarter, the company expects to report 30% year-on-year growth. “In terms of gaming, there is close to 60% year-on-year growth expected in Q3,” he said.
“If we look at the overall market, India is the biggest consumer PC market in the entire Asia Pacific and a very important market for Asus as well. So, this year, we are aiming to capture 20% market share in the consumer laptop segment in India,” Su added.
He said India’s PC penetration ratio is very low, at about 10, even as the pandemic has led to a growth in demand for PCs and laptops. “So, there is a very big opportunity for all PC makers to further invest in India to do business and meet the spike in demand,” he said. The company is also betting big on the gaming PC market in India with its ROG range.
In the mainstream laptop segment, Asus is trying to drive growth for the thin and light laptop segment.
“Thin and light drives almost 70-80% of the non-gaming segment already. It is the key growth engine for the non-gaming segment and Asus,” said Su.
He said the company is also seeing growth for its 2-in-1 products due to various use cases.
“Especially after Covid, due to the work-from-home and studyfrom-home scenario, the touchscreen and using a stylus to write on your laptop has become a very common use case for laptop users,” said Su. “Till 2019, 2-in-1 occupied only around 5% of the entire PC market, making it a very niche segment. But in the first half of 2021, the segment occupied close to 9% of the PC market. In the past two years, we have grown almost seven times in the 2-in-1 segment,” the business daily quoted Su as saying.
