ASUS Australia, who last year reported a decline in both revenues and profits has moved to expand their product range with a new direct sell smartwatch despite a decline in smart watch sales and fitness trackers.
At December 2015, the Australian subsidiary only managed to generate profits of $274K on revenues of $7M.
This was down on prior year profits of $277K. Revenues were also down by $800,000.
ChannelNews understands that ASUS sales have been slow in 2016 with arch rival Acer and Chinese Company Lenovo stripping PC sales away from ASUS whose products have been “deranged” at some retailers.
The Taiwanese PC Company who are struggling to sell a $2,600 notebook in Australia has reported a global net profits of US$187.75 million for the third quarter of 2016, up 45% on quarter and 42% on year.
Sales of branded products were down 3% year on year.
In Australia ASUS are trying to break into the premium PC market despite having little if any brand pedigree. Their latest watch is $449 and has been launched 24 hours ahead of the new Gear 3 watch from Samsung.
The Company will sell the ZenWatch 3 through its own eShop for $449 outright.
ChannelNews understands that several retailers were offered the watch but declined to range the ZenWatch 3. ASUS has also tried to get their smartphone range sold in Australia but both retailers and carriers have failed to stock it.
One major retailer told ChannelNews “ASUS products look good but their brand and there spend on marketing, is simply not good enough to worth taking a risk on, when there are brands like Apple and Samsung selling similar products backed by a significant marketing investment”.
The new watch will go on sale from 25 November 2016.
