Netbook
Acer takes pole position
Another new category introduced in the Channel Champions 2009 survey is Netbook, as it has the potential to drive PC penetration in the country.
One needs to mention, however, the netbook consumption in 2009 failed meet expectations, primarily because of performance issues and also due to lack of push from vendors like HP and Dell.
With Intel launching its dual core Atom, the performance issues of the previous generation N270 Atom have been addressed. In the past three months, HP and Dell have intensified their netbook strategy.
Increased competition is bound to bring down the entry-level pricing, strengthen marketing and visibility for the category, and lead to product segmentation.
Acer was adjudged the Channel Champion in the category, followed by Lenovo, Asus, Samsung, Dell and HP.
Acer has been the most consistent and aggressive in pushing the netbook category since 2008. Lenovo’s netbooks have met with significant success in China and the company did well to replicate the Chinese strategy in India with the right price-performance options for customers.
Asus is credited with taking netbooks mainstream worldwide and this distinction has helped the company.
Product availability
With more number of SKUs priced aggressively, Acer dominated this parameter, followed by Lenovo, Asus, Samsung, Dell and HP.
Respondents said that during the year Acer focused aggressively on pushing netbooks, unlike Dell who only started the push toward Q3 2009, and HP began its netbook drive only by the beginning of 2010.
Lenovo launched its netbooks in Q2 2009 in the market and was fairly aggressive in pushing its range in the market.
Asus has good netbook portfolio and it also enjoys wide distribution of products. Samsung’s netbook strategy revolved around pushing the products in the class A cities which met with considerable success. It polled 90 percent of its votes from class A cities.
Price-performance
Respondents said that price is the deciding factor in netbooks; if the price is high, customers prefer to buy a notebook.
Acer was ranked ahead of competition on price-performance parameter owing to its aggressive push in the market. Lenovo ranked second followed by Asus, Samsung, Dell and HP.
At the beginning of Q2 2009, Samsung upped the ante in this segment by reducing prices and aggressively marketing its product.
Dell was selling their netbook models at over Rs 20,000 during the first three quarters, however in Q4 2009 it reduced the prices to sub-Rs 20,000, according to respondents.
HP had the highest priced netbook, a lone model priced at a market operating price (MOP) of Rs 22,000. However, in January 2010 the company has launched several new models and brought down the entry-level pricing to Rs 17,000, which many believe will give a boost to its netbook portfolio.
Partner profitability
Lenovo not only provided better upfront margins, but also offered channel incentive schemes that were well appreciated.
While Acer too offered customer schemes, it lacked in channel schemes. Both Asus and Samsung provided better partner profitability than Dell and HP.
Marketing and training
Acer with its aggressive marketing push did well on this parameter followed by Lenovo and Samsung which were rated high on customer and channel marketing.
While Asus ran some channel schemes, it completely lacked customer promotions. Dell ramped up its marketing in Q4 2009 and respondents said that since then they have seen increase in sales for Dell netbooks.
While respondents said that HP has the best customer pull, it lacked marketing focus on netbooks. The company has only recently upped its stakes in the market, and has launched aggressive customer and marketing campaigns.
Post-sales support
Overall, there weren’t any significant warranty issues reported for any of the brands.
Acer ranked high on post-sales support, followed by Samsung, Lenovo, Asus, Dell and HP. Samsung’s pick-up warranty service in class A cities helped boost its ranking in this space.
Channel policy and management
Interestingly, although it didn’t score high on this parameter in the notebook segment, Acer was rated first in channel policies and management in the netbook category.
Lenovo’s improved channel engagement and relations overall had a positive rub-off on the netbook category as it ranked second on this parameter. Asus was ranked third, followed by Samsung, Dell and HP.
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