More Filipinos seen buying 'fashion' laptops
MANILA, Philippines – The economic squeeze is apparently not discouraging Filipinos from sacrificing fashion over function when it comes to buying laptops.
Taiwanese vendor Acer is positioning its Gateway brand to target this particular set of buyers, foreseeing growth for "fashion-related" notebook computers.
Gateway used to be an American brand until it was acquired by Acer two years ago, in a bid to step up its standing against rival vendors HP and Lenovo.
Locally, Acer is re-positioning Gateway to cater to "lifestyle" notebook buyers. The brand Acer, on the other hand, is geared towards those looking for functionality.
With this sort of yin and yang approach, Acer is hoping to increase its share further of the local notebook market. Based on previous IDC data, Acer has grown its share of the total PC market, thanks to sales of low-end, low-cost notebooks.
“The Philippine market is definitely huge in the PC business, especially in the laptop segment. The devices are getting better both in function and in look,” said Acer Philippines general manager Manuel Wong, during the recent launch of new Gateway laptops.
Among the latest Gateway computers launched were the LT200 and LT 3100 series netbooks, running on Intel's Atom microprocessor.
According to Wong, Filipino buyers are either choosing "workhorses" for specific functions or are buying well-designed notebooks to fit their own creative lifestyles.
“We realized that with the availability of wireless Internet on mobile devices, there is the split in the kind of Internet users we have," said Wong.
"There are the consumers who want to get the latest information, download new stuff and just plain surf the Internet. But there are also the ‘creators’ who contribute new content for others to see."
Wong said the Acer and Gateway brands are marketed separately and target very specific segments in the Philippines.
He added newer Gateway models will be launched within the second half of the year as the laptop market remains strong.
More Filipinos seen buying 'fashion' laptops - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos
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