 "Acer to launch tablet PCs in July")
The company is currently in the process of appointing distributors for the pan-India launch. The IT hardware maker had already “successfully test marketed” its tablets in select urban centres.
“We test marketed our tablets in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore for two months selling nearly 20,000 units,” Acer Managing Director Harish K Kohli told Business Standard here. These tablets carried sub-Rs 10,000 price tags.
“We have tied up with one distributor and two more distributors would be on board before the planned launch in the first week of July 2013,” Kohli informed.
He was in town to launch Acer’s first company-operated service lounge in Lucknow and the fourth in country; other three being at Delhi, Bangalore and Pune. During the current calendar year, 6 more lounges would be opened at Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Kochi. These would complement its existing service network.
“Almost 75% of the tablets are sold through the telecom channel vis-à-vis the IT channel. Since, Acer products are basically distributed through the IT channel, we would also be collaborating with telecom companies,” he said.
Meanwhile, Acer is readying to bid for the free tablet distribution scheme of the Akhilesh Yadav government. Fulfilling the pre-poll promise of the ruling Samajwadi Party, the government had announced it will provide free tablets to all the students passing Xth standard.
Until now, the IT manufacturers had not shown keenness towards the scheme and had not even provided their samples to the government for testing.
“The tablet specifications mandated by the government should also be practical for the manufacturers. We have provided our feedback to the state and the modified specifications are expected soon,” he said.