Now GoI jolts Acer

Delay in government's decision making while releasing the allocated budget for IT projects have irked Acer India and many other PC vendors. The vendor has been seeking quick response from the government to release the budget, so that many of the key IT projects which are waiting to get green signals can pump up the economy.

Speaking on the sidelines of the launch of the company's 30 notebook models in New Delhi, S Rajendran, CMO, Acer India said, "Today, tons of projects are crying for a delay in decision making from the government. Moreover such projects are integral to the country's economy; for example, passport e-seva, computerization of land records and many more. The decision making process is crawling and has been almost paralyzed. Even we are waiting for the government to release the purchase order, which has been delaying for long. Hence we would want the government to fast track their decision."

The other challenge which the vendor is facing is that IT hardware market is import intensive. "Most of the government projects are locked in with rate contracts within a window of 6-9 months. Today, we have a challenge to deliver at the same price point, which was quoted 6 months ago. Hence, we want the government to look at the credence to the reality and index the pricing as per the dollar," added Rajendran.

Moreover, Acer is likely to start supplying notebooks for Uttar Pradesh market, as the vendor is in talks with the same. For the Elcot project, Acer will be completing its supply of 2,00,000 units of notebook by end of September. "Earlier the supply was hit due to hard-disk crisis, but we are hopeful to complete the project by September this year," said Rajendran.

Currently, Acer ships 50,000 units each of desktops and laptops in a month. On the ultrabook side, the vendor is shipping 1,000 units per month and 2,000 units of Iconia tablets. It is also bullish about Windows tablet to further accelerate the sale.