The Hindu Business Line : Dell eyes low-cost personal computer; seeks lower tariff structure

New Delhi March 20 In a bid to double its sales to $1 billion in India, Dell Computers on Tuesday said that it was looking to introduce low-cost PCs in the market. So far, the company has been focusing on the enterprise and corporate segment with its notebooks and servers.

"Dell in India grew by 70 per cent last year and we are rapidly heading towards $1 billion. We will surely look at manufacturing low-cost personal computers," said Mr Michael Dell, Founder of Dell Inc.

While the company is the market leader in the enterprise segment, it lags way behind HP and Lenovo when it comes to the retail consumer segment.

In the enterprise server market, the company increased its market share to 19 per cent from 9 per cent.

Mr Dell said that the manufacturing facility at Chennai, announced last year, will be operational by July with a capacity of 4-lakh units per annum. "The manufacturing facility would initially address the needs of the domestic market. With local manufacturing in place, Dell's most comprehensive presence in the world outside the US would be in India," he said.

The company is currently supplying to India from its manufacturing facility in China and Malaysia.

The Founder said that the existing tax structure in India is not encouraging for manufacturers. "India is losing investments due to its tariff structure," he said.

As an example, one of Dell's component suppliers is investing $5 billion in Vietnam. Mr Dell said the company has 86 suppliers who may set up shop in India if the duty structure is rationalised to make local manufacturing attractive when compared to imports. In India, taxes add 20-25 per cent to the cost of computers.

Earlier in the day, addressing the CII-CEO conference, Mr Dell said that India has a key role in the global evolution of technology.