Monday, Aug 09, 2004
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By Anand Parthasarathy
BANGALORE, AUG. 8. The fastest growing segment, in the fastest growing Information Technology market in Asia, right here in our homes, in India. Who says so? Technology analysts, IDC, in their `Directions 2005' market report card released last week. Personal Computers in India were expected to grow from under 3 million now to around 8 million by 2007-08, driven by falling prices which today see desktops available for below Rs. 20,000 and notebooks for around Rs. 50,000. Recent dithering by the Government — which first slashed excise duties in the Union Budget on personal computers to zero, then raised it again, after outraged yelps from indigenous PC makers — raised customer expectations of an affordable first computer, then dashed them, all within a fortnight.
Cheaper printer
But the global industry has done what the India's IT planners and players palpably failed to do — put its money where its mouth is: On Thursday, the Japanese company Epson launched a truly budget colour inkjet at below Rs. 3000 and it managed to do it while still delivering excellent photo quality, as well as throwing in a couple of new wireless and Web-enabled features. On the same day, the U.S.-based AMD announced a new affordable family of processors — the Sempron — for value-conscious buyers of both desktop and notebook PCs. And soon after the Budget, Singapore-based eSys announced that it would soon offer Indian customers a Linux-based PC with colour monitor and an Intel Celeron chip under the hood for Rs. 13,999, an indication that it is now cheaper to import PCs than assemble them here. The Epson Stylus C 45 is good value for those who increasingly use the digital route to taking family pictures — and like to print their own copies. And with so many mobile phones doubling as cameras, the C 45 comes with special software that allows users to print pictures clicked with a mobile, enhancing these low resolution digital images to something that can deliver a decent print. Another utility allows one to print Internet Web pages, scaling them so that one avoids those awkward crops of important information. There is also a neat trick which `mixes' ink from the red, green and blue, to deliver a black image when the black cartridge runs dry. AMD, which surged ahead in the desktop processor race last year by offering for the first time a 64-bit option to Windows-based PC users, has decided that it is "Cheaper by the Dozen": It has just launched a 12-processor Sempron, family: 7 desktop chips, 3 standard notebook chips and 2 for the power-shy `thin 'n light' notebook segment. The international quantity pricing is in the $120 -$ 40 bracket and by making chips approximately 20 percent cheaper in their respective segments, the release should trigger at least some relief for customers who may be planning to buy that first desktop or notebook PC in the weeks to come.
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