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Kamal Narang

Bets big on India: Mr. Michael Dell, Chairman and CEO, Dell, at the launch of new range of laptops, in the Capital on Wednesday. -

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Aug. 13 Upbeat about India — a market where it hopes to hit $1 billion revenue next year, Mr Michael Dell, Chairman of world’s second largest PC marker Dell Inc, on Wednesday announced a new line of business laptops that can run for as long as 19 hours on a single charge.

Mr Dell who was in the country to announce the new line of Latitude and Dell Precision laptops, ranging from the lightest ultra-portable to powerful mobile workstation, said that changing needs of connected users (‘digital nomads’) were driving new laptop features .

“People are demanding technology to enable them to be connected anytime and anywhere — the connected era is fast dawning in Asia, with dynamic fast growing economies paving the way. In India for instance, the Internet usage has grown 27 per cent over last year and by 2012 it is expected that India will have the largest Wimax network in the world,” he said.

Pointing to the growth in social networking phenomenon globally and in the country, thanks to MySpace and Facebook, Mr Dell said that, in India, sites such as Yaari were becoming “hugely popular” amongst the youth.

“These indicators reflect what is happening all over the world; there are 5 lakh people coming online for the first time in their lives…and these 5 lakh new users quickly become the next one billion online users.

These next billion users will mainly come from emerging countries such as Brazil, Russia China, and India. Many of the users will not start with desktop or a dial-up connection,” said the Dell founder.

India, Mr Dell said, has been witnessing the trend of the digital revolution in a big way. “Laptops in this country have grown from five per cent of the PCs sold three years back, to 29 per cent now. Asked about the impact of slowdown on IT spends, Mr Dell said, “When companies or economy are under cost pressure, people want to become more productive.” Dell expects worldwide demand for computers to increase in the second half of this year, boosting sales. Industry shipments of computers are likely to touch 300 million in 2008, Mr Dell said.

On the company’s growth plans for India, he said that Dell, which has 13,000 people in India was “excited about the opportunities.” “We will continue to hire people, invest and grow business in India,” he said.

Commenting on the growth witnessed by the company in India, Mr Paul Henri Ferrand, President APACS, Dell Global BV, said that Dell’s revenue in India rose from $300 million three years back to an estimated $800 million this year (in terms of run rate based on the first quarter).

“On a current run rate basis, we expect to achieve $800 million in revenue in 2008...in the first quarter, we did about $200 million,” Mr Ferrand told reporters on the sidelines of the news conference.

“We should be able to achieve $1 billion (in revenue) in 2009,” Mr Ferrand said, adding that for Dell, personal computer sales in India grew 99 per cent from a year earlier during the first quarter.

The company said that the new Latitude systems provide a breakthrough battery life, new design and style, including choice of five colours. “This is the best line of laptops we have ever produced,” Mr Dell said. The Dell E6400 with a starting price of Rs 54,990 has a battery life of 19 hours on a single charge. It also unveiled Latitude E6400 ATG, a semi-rugged laptop that starts at Rs 69,990. The company has also announced the launch of ultra-portable laptops, including the Latitude E4200, which comes with a 12.1-inch screen and weighs less than 1 kg.

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