[Interview] – Henry Chung, MSI Malaysia Country Manager shares their secret for success at MSI Laptops 20th Anniversary celebration

Founded in 1986, Micro-star International or MSI, as it is more popularly known across the globe, was founded in Taiwan and had their start on crafting motherboards and graphic cards. Over time, the brand spread their wings and expanded to crafting quality laptops with their inaugural laptop, the M510C launching in 2004 before delving into the then nascent gaming market that was still in its infancy in early 2009 before hitting our stride in 2010.

Today, MSI has become a household brand that is recognised for offering some of the world’s best gaming laptops in the market and the preferred choice of discerning gamers such as the ultra premium Stealth 18 MercedesAMG Motorsport revealed at Computex 2024. For gamers who demand the best of mobile gaming, MSI also released the Claw gaming handheld that offers superior performance and ergonomics to play PC games on the go.

In celebration of the recent MSI Laptops 20th Anniversary event which saw them kicking off a special experiential showcase at Sunway Pyramid, we sat down to have a chat with Henry Chung, MSI Malaysia Country Manager who shared more about MSI’s successes in the past two decades, their strategy to becoming one of the most celebrated gaming laptop brands and where they are heading to in the future. With over a decade of experience with MSI and over five years helming MSI Malaysia, Henry shares more about the ethos, history and what makes MSI the brand that we know and love today.

MSI is known as one of the first trailblazers in gaming laptops and has maintained a strong lead as one of the most popular and recognised brands not just in Malaysia but across the globe. How did MSI achieve this notable milestone and build a loyal fan base worldwide?

Henry Chung: When MSI began its laptop business in 2004, we initially focused on the mass market. However, without unique selling points, we quickly fell into price wars. Realising this approach was unsustainable, we shifted in 2010 to focus on quality, creating high-end, well-designed laptops that meet and exceed customer expectations. This strategic pivot led to the development of the first gaming laptops.

Understanding and involving our customers in the design process became a cornerstone of MSI’s design philosophy especially for our gaming laptops. When we entered the nascent gaming laptop market, no one had ever made laptops dedicated specifically for gaming. There was no initial market for them and plenty of sceptics but we persevered. Despite initial scepticism, our commitment to excellence resonated with passionate gamers.

While performance is crucial, gaming laptops require more than just excellent specifications and we place an equal emphasis on quality sound and visuals, reliable network capabilities and responsive controls to create a holistic, premium gaming experience. Early on, we noticed that gamers carried a lot of extra gear like keyboards, mice and headphones for competitions and even for casual meetups because back then, a laptop didn’t have powerful enough sound or sufficiently responsive keyboards. 

To meet the needs of gamers MSI became the first brand to introduce Steelseries mechanical keyboards with Cherry switches in our laptops to offer more tactile feedback and who have been recognised as the best keyboards in the market by professional gamers. We also collaborated with Denmark’s top audio brand Dynaudio to ensure that even our small laptop form factors can offer spacious sound and best-in-class audio quality.

Headphones remain an integral part of a professional gamer’s arsenal and we introduced new technologies such as our Giant Speaker and Duo Wave Speaker technologies to optimise audio quality in both our laptops and headphones while also introducing Hi-Res Audio and audio decoders for high-quality audio performance in our headphones. 

From the drawing board to the final product, MSI ensures each laptop has a unique style, offering users a sense of luxury, distinction, and personal ownership. We continuously incorporate customer feedback and integrate the latest technology to ensure powerful and stable performance along with innovative design to ensure a unique brand identity and a sense of ownership for our loyal customers.

Recognising that one size does not fit all, we  expanded our product line-up to meet diverse needs.  For those who prioritise portability and aesthetics, our MSI Stealth gaming laptops take the lead. For those who value quality design and sufficient performance for everyday gaming, we created the MSI Katana and Cyborg series.

To meet the demands of content creators with excellent graphics and audio ideal for professional use, we created the Z-series laptops. We are truly grateful for the unwavering support of our fans over the past two decades and look forward to continuing to innovate and serve our community for years to come.

How does MSI differentiate themselves from other competitors in the market?

Henry Chung: MSI stands out from the competition with our unswerving focus on luxurious aesthetics to elevate laptops from being mere computing devices into objects of desire, a relentless pursuit for extreme performance to cater to the most demanding users and embracing cutting-edge technology to constantly push the boundaries of what is possible in the world of laptops.

This approach has enabled us to become the best rated laptop brand by users on PC Mag for four consecutive years. Our new products have also consistently received praise from critics, media and customers alike and MSI laptops have won numerous design awards. 

We also collaborate with esteemed partners in automotive, luxury and fashion industries to offer special edition designs. For example, the Creator Z16 Hiroshi Fujiwara was made in collaboration with the renowned street culture personality that bears the laptop’s name and the MSI Stealth Mercedes-AMG Motorsport laptop combines MSI’s high-performance specifications with the luxurious craftsmanship of Mercedes-AMG. These collaborations embody both brands’ dedication to high performance, craftsmanship and an artistic approach to engineering while prioritising customer satisfaction.

This emphasis on quality is possible on account of our extensive research and development, as well as manufacturing expertise. Since 1986, we have conducted our own R&D and possess our own manufacturing facilities. This strong foundation allows MSI to have precise control over product quality, conduct extended durability testing and respond quickly to consumer needs and concerns and to rapidly turn ideas into actual product features. 

MSI also works closely with upstream manufacturers in the design process too, enabling us to offer first-of-its-kind features in our laptops and other products. This ensures that consumers get the cutting-edge of technology and allows for ‘complete’ performance by enabling components to perform at their full potential. While many competing laptops throttle performance to manage heat, MSI laptops offer sustained, stable output even during prolonged use. For instance, the RTX 4060 GPU in some of our high-end gaming laptop designs can run without performance drops.

What are MSI’s core brand values and business philosophy?

Henry Chung: Since our founding, MSI’s business philosophy has always centred on integrity and steady growth. We have maintained our core brand values, which include fostering long-term partnerships with our customers and business partners, championing employee welfare, customer-centric product strategies, pursuing innovative market operations and strong social responsibility. These principles have guided our business practices and will continue to do so in the future.

In 2023, MSI was named by Forbes as the ‘World’s best Employer’, reflecting our commitment to creating a healthy and growth-oriented work environment. We also received the Corporate Environmental Award in 2022 in recognition of our contributions towards energy saving, waste reduction and green manufacturing.

Despite the global laptop market experiencing an overall 10.8% decline in 2023, MSI managed to buck the trend and experience even greater growth. Can you share the reasons for MSI’s success in these challenging times?

Henry Chung: The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a PC boom as people worked from home and needed laptops to do so. In 2023, the boom started to fade with many people having already invested in or having already upgraded their laptops during the pandemic which then lead to a sharp drop in demand. On the supplier side, major manufacturing bases in China also faced capacity shortages due to the lockdowns.

MSI weathered this storm and our success is attributed to keen marketing insight, timely production adjustments, effective inventory management and flexible sales strategies. We also had a proactive, agile team which worked closely with suppliers and sales channels so that we could swiftly deliver our products to consumers while maintaining demand.

This enabled us to get the latest generation of laptops into stores quickly to make them readily available to consumers and also expanded our reach with partnerships with Mercedes-AMG Motorsport which introduced MSI to a new audience who appreciate quality, performance and luxurious design.

Analysts believe that the first generation of AI PCs will primarily target high-end business needs and content creators, which aligns with MSI’s core strengths. How is MSI responding to the increasing adoption of AI and will this be a key focus for MSI in the future? 

Henry Chung: The advent and increasing integration of AI both in business and daily tasks is not a passing trend. It is contingent on device manufacturers to offer as best an experience as possible to users. Making AI accessible involves providing a combination of cutting-edge hardware and software for a seamless, intuitive user experience. While different PC manufacturers define what is an ‘AI PC’ differently, our goal is to make AI as accessible and as seamless as possible, effectively creating an ‘AI+PC’.

To this end, we’ve developed smart applications like MSI AI ARTIST and MSI AI ENGINE to integrate AI capabilities into daily life in our latest generation of MSI laptops. While cloud-based AI applications have their place, MSI’s suite of local edge AI applications offers a balance of functionality, better security, and speed.

We also work closely with upstream manufacturers to gain early access to new products, enabling us to bring them to market faster than other brands, giving us a distinct competitive edge. 

Looking ahead to the next 20 years and beyond, what new plans or goals does MSI have for the future?

Henry Chung: This year is a meaningful one for us as it marks the 20th anniversary of MSI laptops which is a significant milestone. Starting in June, various countries including Malaysia will celebrate MSI’s 20th laptop anniversary with a series of promotional activities and special limited-edition 20th anniversary merchandise.

We have just recently concluded our MSI 20th Anniversary showcase at Sunway Pyramid where we shared our history as a brand with examples of the products that made us famous along with an array of fun experiential activities.

MSI will continue to be driven by our three core values when designing and offering our products which are luxurious aesthetics, extreme performance and innovative technology. 

 

Moving forward, we seek to serve a broader consumer base including the business market and have established a dedicated business team to cater to this new segment which has unique requirements beyond the consumer market. We are truly grateful to our many partners, customers and users and hope to move forward to a brighter future together. 

For more on the MSI 20th Laptops Anniversary celebrations and their extensive history, you can check out their official website at https://msi-laptop-story.msi.com/en