While the pandemic has impacted life last year and a half, the way the market, including both the consumers and the brands, has evolved is commendable. Be it sudden lockdown, shuttered factories, supply chain restraints or even logistics challenges, we’ve all found a way to survive the new normal.
TechRadar India got in touch with Acer’s Chief Business Officer Mr Sudhir Goel and had an exclusive discussion around various topics that our audience wanted to know.
Sudhir Goel, Chief Business Officer, Acer India
In this candid discussion, he shared details about Acer’s plan for the year 2021, upcoming trends in the computing and laptop industry, remote education, chipset shortage, and the newfound competition in the form of smartphone makers venturing into this domain.
Talking about the innovation that Acer looks to introduce to the market, Goel mentioned that the company plans to not only add new laptops and computing devices in various categories that it operates in. He revealed that Acer will soon introduce a new device under the Swift lineup that caters to users looking for powerful yet thin and light laptops.
Conventional tech companies vs New Age tech brands
Sharing his opinion on smartphone brands like Xiaomi or Realme etc venturing into the IT business by launching laptops, Goel feels that the market had been seeing negative growth before the Covid impact and the increase in demand is directly related to the pandemic era.
He feels that due to the sudden increase in the requirements in the last year and a half, more brands are entering into this space, however, once the market demands regularize, these brands might find it difficult.
According to him, the infrastructure, supply chain, and technological prowess required to refresh the product line will remain the key difference and, in the end, a handful of core tech brands operating in this space will survive.
While the focus will remain on the hybrid laptops that offer the best on both gaming and performance, the company is gradually looking to increase its AiOT and smart home portfolio. Acer, which recently added a new smart Acerpure Air purifier to its repertoire, plans to not only expand this lineup with another variant of air purifier but will also add an ozone sanitiser to its lifestyle range of products soon.
Remote education will be an essential part of life
According to Goel remote learning is here to stay and even with schools re-opening gradually, the aspect of e-learning cannot be removed. One asking why Chromebooks have not been successful in India, he feels that the lack of proper internet connectivity and cloud infrastructure across the country’s length and breadth is one of the key reasons why devices like Chromebooks haven’t been well accepted in India compared to the western countries.
Chip shortage may take more time to ease
While the tech companies across the globe are grappled with chipset shortage which again can be linked to the pandemic and the increased demand, Goel feels that the increased demand is sort of a boon and every company would want to be in a scenario wherein the demand never dies.
He also states that though it was estimated that that chip shortage will be over in a quarter or so, however, it has only extended. This has resulted in a spike in the price of raw materials and components which has a spillover effect on the consumers.
Manufactures as a result train their focus on the mid-range and premium-priced products rather than budget devices. According to him, the situation is tricky, and hopefully, in the next two quarters, we can expect it to ease out a bit.
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