No more smartphones, for now: Acer's new strategy for Indian market

At a time when the shipment of PCs is trailing that of smartphones, Taiwan-based Acer has taken a rather unusual route in India — the fastest growing market in the world.

The company put its ailing mobile phone business on hold in December, and has decided to focus on hardware for new technology such as virtual reality (VR) and internet of things (IoT) instead, a top executive told Tech in Asia. The PC-maker wants to introduce its VR headsets, wearables, and gaming hardware in India by 2018-19.

Acer, which derives over 90 per cent of its revenue from PC sales, introduced a modest portfolio of mobile phones back in 2010. But it didn’t quite take off. In 2015, the company came back, launching two smartphones in India – the Liquid 630s and the Liquid 530 – at $160 and $100, respectively.

But fierce competition from phone



manufacturers such as Xiaomi, Lenovo, Oppo, and Vivo stalled Acer’s progress in the country.