Asus wants to go to school

Asus has flagged education as the biggest opportunity to increase its share of the local notebook market.

It is planning to leverage sales growth in the consumer and SOHO markets to move into the lucrative tender-based sector.

"Our notebook products have been well received and supported by our traditional dealer channel," PC product manager, Martin Gooey, said. "We are now looking to build on that success with an additional focus on other channels."

These other channels included a wish list of 10-15 dedicated tier one education players such as Paragon and Corporate Express, Gooey said.

"We'll look to these partners to bring opportunities to us as well as provide service and support to schools," he said.

To spearhead this push, the company had recently launched its Education by Asus program through current distribution partners Synnex, Ingram Micro and Cellnet.

The initiative provides primary and secondary teachers and students with discounted pricing on set configurations of the vendor's S5 and M5 12.1-inch notebooks until February.

These models had street prices of $2399 and $2599, respectively, Gooey said, and would allow Asus to compete head-to-head with Lenovo ThinkPad machines rather than try to get a foothold in the volume end of the market.

"The functionalities and features mean we don't have to compete on brand," he said.

Gooey said the vendor was hoping to increase its overall notebook sales by about five per cent in the next year as a result of its focus on education.