Acer maintained its market leadership in the PC (desktop, notebook and workstation) industry in the Philippines for 13th consecutive year after it accounted for a 27% market share in 2021 on the strength of stay-at-home demand for devices to be used for education and work.
Acer Philippines registered a 42% hike when it sold 561,000 units of personal computers in 2021, compared with 394,000 units in 2020. In 2019, it sold 347,000 units. The company’s robust performance was attributed to the online learning as Filipinos turned to Acer, the tech giant known for its strong position in the education sector. Other factors that contributed to the growth were the increased need for devices as more Filipinos worked from home and Acer’s multiple product offerings across all market segments and the brand’s value for money proposition.
In the local notebook segment, Acer still occupied the top position for 16th consecutive year when it cornered 33% share of the market in the Philippines in 2021. The company reported a market share of 30% in consumer notebooks and 34% market share in gaming notebooks.
Acer also dominated the market for consumer branded desktop with a 31% market share as the brand prevailed in the consumer all-in-one desktop category with a 52% market share. In the monitor category, it had a 22% market share in 2021.
According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), some 1.72-million PCs from different brands were sold in the Philippines in 2021 from 1.35-million in 2020 and 1.34-million in 2019. Globally, PCs were in high demand with 350-million units shipped worldwide.
The IDC Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker, Q4 2021 also showed that work from home and digitization drove demand in the private sector. The share of notebooks in the consumer market rose to 84% in 2021, up from 73% before the pandemic. For the commercial market, market share of notebooks went up from 30% in 2018 to 69% in 2021.
Pandemic-related quarantines and lockdowns also drove the growth in gaming- and entertainment-related PC sales in the Philippines in 2021. Sales of Acer gaming notebooks nearly doubled with 113,000 units sold, from 75,000 in 2020 and 38,000 in 2019.
“The PC has become a necessity during the pandemic. While the demand was strong beyond our expectations due to online learning and work-from-home needs, including notebook PCs, Chromebooks, monitors and others, we did our best to fulfill them,” said Sue Ong-Lim, general manager at Acer Philippines.
Apart from these sterling performances, Acer also stepped up its sustainability efforts by introducing the Earthion program, through which the company engages its entire ecosystem from supply chain partners to consumers and employees by helping tackle environmental challenges through innovative and integrated solutions.
Acer’s notebooks have adopted recycled paper for packaging since 2020. This has saved 8,750 kg of paper pulp and cut down on the usage of 20-million plastic bags. From Acer’s internal recycling activities, over 50 metric tons of batteries were recycled and remanufactured into new ones.
In 2021, Acer announced a new ‘enviro-friendly’ laptop, the Acer Vero, containing 50% post-consumer recycled plastic in its keyboard caps, an about 30% in other parts, such as the top and bottom cover and screen bezels. Toward the end of 2021, the company expanded its Vero portfolio across a variety of devices.
IDC said PC demand is expected to remain robust this year as uncertainty about future pandemic outbreaks means businesses, schools and consumers will want to be ready for another lockdown. Another factor that could drive growth is the digitization of business, growth in e-commerce will drive more spending from the private sector.
Acer seeks to diversify its portfolio mix and expand new businesses such as acerpure, Altos, HSN and Acer Gaming. It will also improve value creation and enhance the consumer journey. Acer will also continue to set lofty goals to reduce its carbon emission and create more environmentally-friendly tech products.
“Acer’s goal in 2022 is to optimally perform within core business competencies while we transform to prepare for areas of future growth,” said Ong-Lim.
