The Hindu Business Line : Build your own PC, use it in your language too...

BUILD your own personal computer and use it in your language too. Samsung Electronics India Information and Telecommunication Ltd (SEIIT), the IT and telecom subsidiary of Samsung Electronics, is planning to aggressively move into the domestic personal computers market where it rapidly expand marketshare by going into the huge, untapped rural markets of the country.

The company is also planning to woo the rural PC buyer with value-adds such as a comprehensive regional language tool, which it plans to launch sometime in July.

The company, which has been test-marketing its range of personal computers across markets in the north, east and west, plans to get ahead in the business by allowing consumers to literally build a computer based on their application needs, Mr Princy Bhatnagar, Country Manager, BUPC (BuildurPC) , SEIIT, told newspersons.

``India's IT industry is suffering stagnant sales of PCs basically because of vendors who don't communicate the benefits of the PCs to the end-user and also because sales are usually configuration-driven'', Mr Bhatnagar said.

SEIIT's PC business will be driven by local manufacturing facilities put up by distribution partners at Navi Mumbai, Goa, Kolkata (2) and one each in Noida and Jaipur, which will reduce the turnaround time to seven days before the consumer can get delivery of the PC that he builds.

Mr Bhatnagar said that the company now has the largest PC manufacturing capacity in the country with each of the partners having capacities of 200 PCs/day.

The company has already sold 22,000 units of their entry level PCs during the test phase, which launched in October 2002 and expects to end the first year of operations with sales of one lakh units.

``Over the next three months we plan to be present in 400 cities across the country'', he said adding that the bulk of sales will come from rural areas including D and E category towns.

SEIIT's foray into personal computers will also drive the growth of its component business — Samsung contributes 70 per cent to the components of a PC and is a leader in the PC peripheral market.

Mr Bhatnagar, who was in Pune to commercially launch the BUPC in Maharashtra, said it will reach across 15 main cities in the State and appoint 50 retail partners, 30 corporate resellers and 5 solution providers to drive the business.

``Eighty five per cent of the growth will come from the 15 cities to the exclusion of Mumbai. Our effort is to bring about a shift in the buying behaviour of consumers by focussing on rural areas and smaller towns'', Mr Bhatnagar said.

Maharashtra has a total market size of five lakh units annually of which 1.7 lakh is branded PCs while 3.3 lakh units are assembled. ``By end 2003, we plan to sell 21,000 PCs in Maharashtra alone'', he said.

SEIIT's market push will also include massive IT education and awareness drives for which road shows in the western region will go on till end July.

The company has already spent upwards of $500,000 till date on creating and developing markets and channels.

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