Hardware vendor Acer has set ambitious goals for its Middle East desktop business in 2006. Sanjay Kachroo, business development manager for desktop PCs at Acer Middle East, also claims that the vendor’s Aspire L200 Living Centre entertainment PC has been a roaring success in the region since its summer 2005 launch.
“The home entertainment PC has been a great success,” said Kachroo. “When it launched, I was pessimistic and only ordered 1,000 units but they have already sold out through various retailers including Jumbo, Jacky’s and Jarir. For this year’s Dubai Shopping Festival I will order at least 2,000 units.”
“We understand that it is not yet a product for everyone in this region and requires a DSL connection. It is completely different from a desktop PC and because it is aimed at the living room environment it is not a product where the price point is all-important. Retailers can make at least twice the margin on an entertainment PC than they would make on a basic desktop PC,” he added.
While major vendors such as HP and Dell are all pushing hard with entertainment PCs in Europe, Acer reckons that its time-to-market with the L200 in the Middle East has given it a significant first-mover advantage in the region.
“The L200 is a product that needs to be sold in the same way as a TV or hi-fi,” continued Kachroo. “We sell directly to Jumbo and have a fulfilment relationship through Jumbo to Jacky’s. It is important that this product is available in consumer electronics retailers and that the sales staff have the knowledge and the skills required.”
Away from the entertainment PC space, Kachroo also reckons that the standard consumer desktop PC segment is still very much alive and kicking despite the attention lavished on notebooks at present.
“On the desktop side of our Middle East business, 75% is sales to the commercial space and 25% is sales to the consumer market at present,” explained Kachroo. “I want that to become 40% commercial and 60% consumer in 2006. The industry has embarked on a rat race revolving around the price points for entry-level consumer notebooks. Consumer desktops are not driven purely by price points — it is also about specifications, flexibility and expandability.”
“We are the only tier one vendor in this region that focuses as much on the consumer desktop space as we do on the commercial space. Retail partners can get much better profitability selling a desktop as opposed to a notebook and we need to educate them on that,” he added.
“We are not trying to kill the notebook; we are just trying to get partners to offer the consumers the product they need and the product that best suits their requirements. A lot of hype has been created around notebooks but the primary PC in the home still needs to be a desktop,” he concluded.
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