Acer tops India LCD monitor market in 2008

BANGALORE, INDIA: Acer, one of the world's top three branded PC vendors, has emerged as the No. 1 player in the overall India LCD monitor market for the calendar year 2008 (as per IDC’s Asia/Pacific Quarterly PC Monitor Market Tracker, Q4 2008, February 2009 release).

Over the last three quarters Acer has recorded massive growth in the exploding LCD monitors market in India and upstaged many of traditional players who have dominated the market for the better part of a decade moving the Acer brand to the top position.

Showing consistency as a formidable player, Acer has witnessed tremendous growth with an overall market share of 14.4 percent in terms of unit shipments in the India LCD monitor market in CY 2008.  Acer dominated the overall LCD monitor market in India with total unit sales of 688, 843 in CY 2008. It also retained its hold on the No.1 position in the overall Widescreen Indian LCD Monitor market. A remarkable achievement indeed, which has seen it emerge as a powerhouse in the monitors segment over the last one year.

S. Rajendran, Chief Marketing Officer, Acer India, said, “Setting a new standard for quality and value, Acer monitors are an attractive and functional addition to any customer environment. We at Acer are proud to be the first company to actively champion the transition of 15-inch LCD monitors to the ‘wide screen’ format also being the first to introduce the widescreen formats in 17-inch, 19-inch, 22-inch in the country. Very recently we became the first brand to introduce the all-new form factor of 18.5-inch LCD monitors worldwide and in India.

These first to market moves and a razor focus on our objective of “GO BIG GO WIDE’ combined with our relentless objective of channel focus have clearly positioned us as the front runner in the market. It has helped us gain immense mindshare with the channel and end user segments, the key to success in this highly competitive market.”

Acer has also helped accelerate the movement from CRTs to LCDs, therefore reaching the customer with attendant benefits such as lower power consumption, lesser real estate space and so in a sense the company’s products have encouraged adoption of ‘green computing’ in Indian offices and homes.

Acer’s success in the monitor market has been driven by their continuous focus on the strategy of ‘Go Big Go Wide’ where the company constantly checkmated its competition by driving the market towards the bigger and wider form factors and bringing out the latest models first into the market. This has been further supplemented by unique features like the ‘e-key’ which helps the customer to manage the various functionalities with the touch of a button and hence making the Acer LCD monitors more user-friendly. Other factors which are responsible for the phenomenal growth include better features like enhanced colour fidelity and image clarity available only with Acer’s monitor range. With their range of monitors, Acer has been able to target segments such as Home, SOHO and BFSI segments in a big way.

A key part of the success has also been Acer’s differentiated channel strategy focused on striking partnerships with channels focused on key user segments like Home, SME/SMB, Large accounts and Govt apart from working and reaching out effectively to the vast network of smaller channel partners (T3) focused on end user LCD sales which has in turn created a major pull for the products across the channel.