Acer launches Gateway for premium segment

GURAGAON, INDIA: Acer announced the launch of two global PC brands—Gateway and eMachines—in the Indian market, further enhancing its tag as a multi-brand vendor.

Gateway is targeted at the premium segment of the market while eMachines focuses on the core value customer. All Gateway models will be preloaded with original Microsoft Windows operating system.

Talking at the launch, WS Mukund, MD, Acer India said, “Our primary focus is on the government, consumer, SMB and education sectors. However, each segment has different requirements and we believe that a new multi-brand strategy is the answer. It is important to set user targets and identify the ideals they aspire to, and then develop products and brands that reflect them.”

According to S Rajendran, Chief Marketing Officer, Acer India, the target customers for Gateway are customers who are on the lookout for high-end trendy and stylish laptops and PC desktops. “15 to 30 percent of the overall PC market in India want trendy products, that are easy to use. This means that there is a huge potential in this segment,” he said.

Elaborating on the go-to-market strategy for the new launches, Rajendran said that with Gateway, as it is a high-end product, they will primarily be taking the large format retail (LFR) route for the first three months, and then go through the channel at a later stage. In order to fulfill that, they have tied-up with Croma retail. “The Gateway models will be exclusively available through Croma stores across six cities to begin with, which include Mumbai and Bengaluru. We believe that the the genesis of the brand is experience, which plays an important part in the marketing strategy. LFRs like Croma, which have more than 30 stores across the nation, are the perfect platform for these launches. Gateway is positioned to go head to head with Sony VAIO and HP Pavillion series of laptops,” he added.

In order to further intensify and enhance the user-experience pre-buying, Gateway will be loaded with the entire suite of Microsoft Windows OS. Talking at the launch, Rajan Andandan, MD, Microsoft India said, “The PC market in India is currently 7.5 million units. The industry has been growing at the rate of 20-25 percent, but the last two quarters have seen a dip of around 20-22 percent. I believe that with a population size as big as that in India, the market should be seeing the sales figure of about 30 million units a year.”

Andandan further added that the piracy rate is 69 percent in India and that is soon becoming a a major issue. “People must realize that pirated products are not secure. Apart from that, they hinder the user from achieving an enhanced experience. With Microsoft's genuine software preloaded with Gateway, consumers can rest assured that they will achieve the full potential from their machine,” he shared.

At the event, Gateway brand was launched in the Indian market in three notebook designs and the 11.6-inch netbook. The lineup also gave a preview of the 'all-one-desktop'.

A showcase of the lineup on notebooks on the Aspire series, which included six new notebooks, was also included. A 10.2-inch netbook and the second generation 11.6-inch Netbook were other products on display. Brand eMachines showcased its India lineup with value level notebooks on the Celeron and Pentium dual-core platforms apart from the ‘Xtra’ small form factor nettop.