Introduction:
Portability has become synonymous with convenience these days, and if we have looks, and features to support it then it's icing on the cake. Similar is thing with netbook market in India. Taking into account the small form factor, light-weight advantage and the pricing (below 20k), netbooks have become popular with students, urban professionals and even with frequent travelers.
Popularly known as mini-notebooks, netbooks are no longer considered as the second laptop, rather consumers prefer it as a regular computing device. Besides its common usage for content consumption, Internet, instant messaging, and email, netbooks are proving to be an ideal option for SMBs and SOHO. The netbook market has become more organized, and end-users can easily differentiate between netbook and notebook utilities, and their pricing.
On the channel front, vendors are putting extra effort to educate partners on the technology and features of netbooks. Seeing the end-user response, and vendors' efforts to promote the product, netbooks will become an ideal computing device in the market.
Players:
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Company
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Latest Product
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Price
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Spokesperson
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Market Share
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Samsung
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N110
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Rs.25,252
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Ranjit Yadav, Director (IT Business)
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7-8 Percent
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Dell
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Latitude 2100
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Rs. 22,000
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Sameer Garde, Country GM
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Asus
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Eee PC 1000HA
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Rs 21, 490 (plus taxes)
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Stanley Wu, Country Head, Notebooks & Eee PC Business
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Wipro
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E.go
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Rs. 23,000
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Ashok Tripathy, General Manager & Head, Systems &Technology & IAS Head
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3.6 Percent
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Zenith
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Devita Saraf, Executive Director
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Go-to-Market Strategy:
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Offering an insight on Samsung strategy, Yadav said, The netbook market is growing well in India linked with its slim and light form factor, affordability, growing awareness, performance and range improvement. We have recently enhanced our netbook range by launching four new models of our N Series. With our products, we are targeting both the home user as well as the enterprise segment. We are looking at this segment as a clear growth driver for our mobile computing business going forward. In fact this year, we expect netbooks to constitute 40-45 percent of our total notebook sales. In terms of the evolved PC users, it is consumers who are using it as their second computing device. - Ranjit Yadav
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Explaining Dell's strategy, Garde said, Netbooks are a companion device for digital content consumption and running an application or two. Dell netbooks are positioned for specific category of users, be in the consumer space, be it in the commercial and education segment. We have seen much interest among consumers in the mini Inspiron range of netbooks. Affordability is one of the key reasons that are driving growth of netbooks. - Sameer Garde
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Sharing Asus' market strategy, Wu said, The trend in 2008 showed a decline in the consumers opting for desktop computers. Also people prefer notebooks to desktops owing to portability and power saving advantages. On the distribution front, we have tie-ups with distributors in India such as Rashi Peripherals, Ingram Micro and Netplace Technologies. We are witnessing a change in the buying pattern of the Indian consumers; people prefer to buy gadgets which offer style with performance. We also have our products on display in certain large format retailers (LFRs) such as Vijay Sales for the consumers to choose from our wide array of Eee PCs and notebooks. Looks matter to the Indian audience, specifically to the youngsters and the college youth who are technology conscious and are better informed about latest gadgets on the anvil.
- Stanley Wu
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Talking about Wipro's strategy, Tripathy said, On mobility business, making available the right model at the right price and most importantly at the right time is the recipe for success. So, we have invested time and effort in building a robust supply chain structure and an effective distribution channel. Wipro works with a set of national distributors to reach the products to experience zones across the country. We are working with select large format retail stores to enable our customers to touch and feel the product. Apart from that, our network of resellers also offers the products through their stores and sales teams.
- Ashok Tripathy |
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On Zenith's strategy, Saraf said, The netbook category currently enjoys close to 5 percent of the total personal computer category. We have recently announced an exciting offer for students availing personal computers this summer. The initiative is aimed at supporting budget purchases on notebooks and netbooks made by both undergraduate and post graduate students in India. We are hoping that second PC buyer market provides a boost to the netbooks category in the coming fiscal. We are expecting the market consumption to reach a 10 percent in FY 2010 -2011.
- Devita Saraf
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Analysis:
The PC vendors have geared up themselves to tap the growing netbook market in India. From traditional online route to online media (not forgetting retailers), vendors are taking all possible steps to reach out to their customers. Although the netbook market is at nascent stage in India, they do offer emerging business opportunities to the channel. Vendors are very much clear in their market strategies, and trying to generate mammoth business opportunities out of this small computing device. However, it would be too early to say that netbooks are posing threat to the notebook market. Nevertheless, features and even the pricing are likely to make netbook a popular computing device with masses and classes both.
Channel Partners' Comments:
Sharing partners' opinion, Bhopal-based Vikas Sharma, CEO, Intactpower, said, "As far as smaller cities are concerned, we need to update end-users on the difference between netbooks and notebooks. According to us, vendors should clearly define the difference between the two to help us sell more. Besides student community, we're getting good response from small and mid-size companies."
On the other hand, Amarjeet Singh Juneja, Owner, Juneja Computers, said, "Although netbook offers good margins as compared to desktop, services and AMC on desktop is recurring and profitable business for channel partners. For netbooks, services offer minimal business opportunities. At times, customers do not prefer netbooks because of battery disadvantages and absence of external optical disc drives (ODDs)."
What ChannelTimes Says:
Now days, end-users understand the benefits of technology in their day-to-day life, and want to use them as much as possible. In such scenario, features offered by netbook in small form factor not only attract them but deliver maximum performance benefits. Netbook popularity in both amongst masses and classes will drive the growth of computing devices in the market. With increased PC penetration in the rural areas also, netbooks will soon find their buyers coming in from these areas, challenging the urban authority.
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