Coders are driving GPU laptop demand—and EMIs are footing the bill: Acer India exec | Technology News

Not every laptop comes fitted with a GPU. (image credit: Acer)

Shift towards premium devices

In the past few years, the premium segment—which spans major product categories, including homes, cars, smartphones, laptops, and other consumer electronics—has seen a major uptick. While the entry-level segment cannot be ignored, as it drives volumes, the premium segment delivers greater value and, therefore, higher profits for brands. Much like the smartphone market, the PC segment is also seeing a similar shift towards premium devices.

Sondhi says the market is divided into three segments. The entry-level segment comprises PCs priced between Rs 30,000 and Rs 45,000, followed by the upgraded segment, where prices range from Rs 60,000 to Rs 70,000. The premium segment, meanwhile, includes PCs priced at Rs 80,000 and above, which, according to Sondhi, is attracting a lot of consumer interest.

While many have suggested that the entry-level segment may not exist in the future, Sondhi dismisses the theory, saying affordable computers will always remain an option for users who need PCs for basic tasks. He added that the industry is evolving by introducing new, lower-tier chips such as Intel’s Wildcat Lake to keep the entry-level segment alive.

At the same time, Sondhi says more consumers are gravitating towards premium laptops that last longer with fewer upgrades. A similar pattern can be observed in the smartphone market, where consumers are holding on to their phones for three or four years, and sometimes even longer.

“Normally, people keep a laptop for three to four years. For example, an engineering or medical student may use the same laptop throughout their four-year course. Once they graduate from college, get a job, or move into a different profession, they typically change their laptop. We see a similar trend in the corporate sector, where companies generally keep laptops for around four years. That’s the industry trend,” he said.

Acer surges past rivals

Acer, now India’s second-largest PC brand by market share, with 21.3 per cent in Q1 2026, according to research firm IDC, has surprised many with how quickly it has risen through the ranks, overtaking larger rivals such as Lenovo and Dell.

What makes this rise even more notable is that it has occurred amid a global memory chip shortage, driven largely by the rapid growth of AI and the data centres that support it. Massive investments in AI have fuelled a huge expansion of server farms, which comprise vast banks of computers packed with high-end memory chips. This has absorbed not only much of the world’s current memory supply but also production capacity for several years, creating a shortage of memory chips and driving up costs across the electronics industry. Smartphones and laptops, in particular, have been hit hard, with prices rising sharply.

The cost of memory, which once accounted for around 15 to 20 per cent of a PC’s total bill of materials, has now risen to more than the cost of the CPU itself, Sondhi explained.

“The first quarter was a peak because Q1 is a government procurement season, and you have to supply according to contract pricing and all that. So, it was a big challenge at that time. Now, what we have done is plan much further ahead of the curve. Earlier, we would plan inventory one or two months in advance, but now we are planning for six months ahead,” Sondhi said.

“Inventory and storage are no longer major concerns, as memory prices, while still rising, have stabilised somewhat. The rate of increase has slowed from around 20 to 30 per cent previously to about 5 per cent, making the situation more manageable,” he added, offering a glimpse into how the memory crisis is shaping up.

G S Sondhi, Senior Director, Product Management Group, Acer India.

Strong government demand for PCs

To some extent, Acer has benefited from supplying computers to the government. Sondhi said the company has maintained a growth rate of roughly 30 per cent year-on-year for the past three years, helped by a large 5,50,000-unit order from the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu. The order, with shipments spread across Q4 and Q1, gave Acer a major boost in the first quarter.

Government demand for PCs remains strong, but rising memory and storage costs have made procurement more challenging, according to Sondhi. While government agencies may have initially budgeted around Rs 50,000 for a PC, prices have risen to Rs 70,000 to 80,000 due to the ongoing memory crisis, leading to several tender cancellations in Q1 and Q2. However, as government agencies have adjusted to the higher prices, more tenders are now coming in, especially from the government and banking sectors. For example, Acer recently secured a large order of nearly 10,000 units from Canara Bank.

Sondhi acknowledged that the consumer segment has witnessed some softness in demand, but he expects it to pick up during the festive season. Cashbacks and EMI offers are also driving PC sales, especially in the premium segment, where 50 per cent of purchases are made through EMIs.

The PC market has undergone a dramatic transformation in recent years, with competition no longer limited to traditional PC makers; chipmakers are also vying for a bigger share of the market. At one point, Intel and AMD were the only major players making chips for PCs. Then, Apple and Qualcomm entered the market, bringing more efficient processors and longer battery life. Earlier this year, Nvidia announced a new AI chip for personal computers, marking yet another high-profile entry. Later this year, Google is expected to launch Googlebook, a new type of notebook running an operating system that combines the best of ChromeOS and Android. Google is partnering with several PC vendors, including Acer, for the new platform.