Acer saw its revenues from the enterprise PC business in Asia Pacific grow 7% on year and account for 41% of the region's overall sales in 2017, and for 2018 the company will seek to raise the percentage to nearly 50%, according Andrew Hou, Acer Pan Asia Pacific president.
Hou pointed out that Acer's enterprise PC orders in Asia Pacific are primarily from the education and government sectors and to strengthen its reach to large-size enterprises, Acer Asia Pacific has been integrating its sales units within the region to establish a unified management system recently.
Since international large-size enterprises usually conduct unified procurement for their offices in multiple areas, Acer Asia Pacific is hoping the new management system will help Acer enter these potential clients' supply chains to offer simplified procurement services, Hou said.
Hou pointed out that Acer has always experienced stable sales in Southeast Asia and is currently seeing revenues from the Philippines and Thailand growing the fastest. Acer's branch office in the Philippines has been established for 15 years and the company has been the largest notebook vendor in the market in terms of sales for 12 consecutive years. With the company having also been the largest PC vendor in the country for the past nine years, Acer Philippines' next target is the enterprise sector.
President of Acer Philippines Manuel Wong pointed out that the company has 40% revenues from enterprise PC products in the market. With the government stepping up developments of infrastructure, education and medical care facilities, Acer is expected to enjoy enormous business opportunities from the government's education projects, which have seen massive increases in their budgets.
Wong pointed out that Acer has won US$36 million education PC procurement orders from the Philippines government that were offered at the end of 2017. Acer was the only PC brand vendor among the bidders, while the rest was local system integrators. For the project, Acer has begun shipping PCs to all the middle schools in the country and helping them establish computer class facilities.
Acer also acquired procurement orders from the Philippines government and will deliver over 10,000 desktops for an amount of US$11 million in the first half of 2018.
Acer is also the top notebook brand in Thailand for 12 years straight and 10 years for the overall PC market. As for Thailand's gaming notebook market, Acer was only at the fifth or sixth place in the first half of 2017, but managed to become the number one in the second half of 2017.
President of Acer Thailand Alan Chiang noted that Southeast Asia has a large population of young people who are the key buyers of gaming PC products, making the region a market full of potentials. With the Thailand government giving strong support to e-sport promotions and the fact that e-sport has been listed as a demonstration event for Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia, Chiang expects these factors to help stimulate gaming-related product demand in Southeast Asia.
For the enterprise sector, the Thailand government already began a plan to develop smart manufacturing two years ago, looking to transform its traditional labor-intensive production model. Meanwhile, the Thailand government has also been executing its Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) plan and is investing US$44 billion over five years from 2017-2021 to expand transportation facilities including airports and harbors and upgrade industries to transform Thailand into a hub of Southeast Asia.
The Thailand government has also cooperated with China companies to build a high-speed railroad connecting Bangkok to the country's border with Laos and is planning more new transportation facilities in the future, which are expected to attract more local and foreign companies to invest in the Southeast Asia country.
Thailand had GDP of 4% in 2017 and growth is expected to reach 4-5% in 2018, which is expected to give Acer a great opportunity to push its sales.
Acer is planning to promote its smart city solutions in Thailand and expects the solutions to be gradually adopted by Thailand's neighbors. Acer's platform that integrates the bus system with the e-cash system is expected to allow Acer to win more opportunities in Thailand's enterprise and public service sectors.
Chiang expects the gaming and smart city businesses to become the revenue growth drivers for Acer Thailand in the upcoming years.
For India, Hou noted that the market has already been back on track after the currency and tax reforms. In Hong Kong, Acer's brand products are seeing growing demand due to the good brand image of the Predator gaming series.
In China, Acer has performed stably in the enterprise sector and seen improvements in the consumer sector after the re-organization in 2017. Acer's revenues in China grew 20% on year in the fourth quarter of 2017, Hou said.
With fierce competition from China's local brands, Acer's operation in China is unlikely to take off immediately, but is stable, noted Hou, adding that the company will try to avoid head-on clashes with competitors and will target niche applications or businesses. |