The Hindu Business Line : The luck of the draw

Buying a PC or laptop is both easy and complex. While it is easy to get finance to buy a system off the shelf, it is not always so in deciding on the best.

There are a whole lot of issues to consider over and above the system specification, such as price, brand and appearance.

From components to software to accessories, new PCs offer a bewildering array of choices. Sifting through these can be daunting, as eWorld found in an interaction with vendors and end-users.

Going beyond the basics

Any basic PC would more than adequately handle standard chores such as word processing and spreadsheet such as the ones you find in a provision store, a pharmacy or a vegetable shop, among others. If such PCs are connected to the Net, one would be able to browse and check mail as well.

For performing these basic functions, one can buy a machine with an Intel Celeron or Pentium (dual core) processor.

A typical home user today is not content with these functions. One might not tap the full potential of the machine, but would look upon it as an ‘intelligent’ digital device. It has become a ‘show piece’, an edutainment, more to say.

Youngsters use the machine to hear music, download and play games, watch movies and create photo albums.

To perform these functions, one would have to buy a middle-level or high-performance computer, with better processor. This will mean additional RAM (as more Random Access Memory helps software applications to load faster), a higher capacity hard drive (to store more multimedia files), bigger monitor and so on.

When user expectations rise by the day, who would go for the Rs 10,000-PC, which had high visibility some time ago in the media?

“Small retail outlets buy the most basic machine to do billing. The excise duty is the catch. When buyers realised that they would not be able to buy it for that price, they gave up the search and started looking for PCs with better specification,” say vendors.

Going by the SOHO (small office home office) segment demands, one would realise that a techie’s requirement would be a lot more demanding. “The demand has, by and large, picked up, but there are still many out there who haven’t got the facts right,” say PC dealers.

Hard sell

While buying a PC could be a daunting task for the layman or first-timers, the selling proposition is also not easy, say vendors.

How do manufacturers resolve this issue?

“We educate the sales force on the machine’s capability. So, when a customer walks into our store, the sales person is able to understand the buyer’s functional use and is able to suggest the system specification to suit his requirement,” says Vivek Siegel, Country Head (Retail), HCL Infosystems.

Do you have such machines (to suit customers’ specifications) off the shelf?

“We do, mostly,” maintains Siegel.

Vista low on visibility

As eWorld moved round the store, we came across people who were looking for high-end PCs for doing 3D graphics and the like. We watched them debate and discuss the system specification only to note that they seemed quite ignorant of the release of Windows Vista Operating System.

And this is eight months after the release of Vista!

Poor Customer awareness

“Not only is the awareness level low, even the adoption is poor. Those who are in the know of it want a system with best configuration but on Windows XP platform,” says the Managing Director of Bloom Electronics, S. Karthikeyan.

Vendors, however, seem to be in a state of excitement over their Vista experience.

“It is totally different, both in appearance and experience,” says Paul, a technician at Bloom.

Then why is he unable to sell, convince the customer?

“This is only a transition phase. Users are, by and large, apprehensive about loading the Vista after working on the XP for years,” says Karthikeyan.

Some customers of Bloom, who had walked away with Vista OS had, according to Paul, complained of problems in loading other software such as Turbo C, C++. ’They find some version of Oracle incompatible. Paul attributes these issues to the existence of pirated software in the PC.

“Though the licensed software prices have come down, India is still a poor country.

Students, for instance, cannot afford to go in for licensed software every time.

The laptop/desktop is no longer costly, but what can one do without loading the OS or other applications?” asks an onlooker waiting to purchase a system.

Sureshkumar of Galaxy Computer Land is, however, more positive about the entire issue.

A dealer in renowned brands such as HP, Compaq, HCL, Toshiba and IBM, this vendor, who has attended a Microsoft training programme on Vista, says “all the solutions are available on the Net.”

‘No compelling feature’

eWorld sought feedback from Prof Rathnavel, at the Dr Mahalingam College of Engineering and Technology on Windows Vista. He, like other observers, says, “Vista, a release from the Microsoft stable after years of experimentation, is almost a copy of Mac OS 10.

While Mac systems bridged the hardware-software gap, to load Vista, one would need Graphics hardware, RAM would have to be enhanced and the overall performance of the hardware also needs to be improved.”

There is nothing wrong with Windows Vista, neither is there a compelling feature within Vista that would induce one to switch over from XP to Vista, says Prof Rathnavel.

He points out that if the management decided to switch over to Vista OS, then the RAM in the 1,000-plus computers that students were currently using would have to be enhanced. “RAM is not cheap,” he says.

Is the dealer able to offer what the customer wants? “We have a wide range,” say dealers, but those who are in the know of technology beg to differ.

One business user pointed out that dealers do not sell multimedia with 2GB memory. “Why do you need 2 GB.. A system with 1 GB is more than sufficient’ the seller argues.

But the customer contends that business systems are well-specified, and the manufacturer invariably does not make systems to suit these specifications.

Siegel, however, begs to differ.

lnr@thehindu.co.in

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