“Ruggedized tablets to grow faster than ruggedized PCs”

Dataquest had a chat with Hide Harada, global director of IT products business unit, Panasonic on the sidelines of its growing Toughbook business. Harada sheds light on the growing trends in the ruggedized PC and tablet space. Read on...

How is Toughbook business doing in India and globally? How strongly are you positioned in the Toughbook space?

Since 1996 we are in the ruggedized business space. So it more than 16 years that Panasonic is selling rugged PCs. As far as market share is concerned, Panasonic in the last 11 years is number one in the ruggedized PC market with more than 60% marketshare. Fortunately, thanks to our customers who've rendered continuous support and helped us grow sustainably over the years. This is despite the fact that we are not in the PC business. What differs us from the traditional PC manufacturers is our endeavor to offer rugged PCs as the consumers demand. Our product is not off-the-shelf product. Based on customer requirements, Panasonic delivers customized devices packed with long battery life, incorporated wide-range wireless, bluetooth, network connectivity options, higher storage, latest software and better screen resolution, etc.

In addition, our in-house manufacturing capability differs us from even the traditional PC manufacturers who outsource their manufacturing processes. Even support is also offered by us and is not outsourced. This way we're exceptionally positioned.

How easy or tough is to sell Toughbooks? Is it convenient to convince customers about the product?

This is one of the most important question we keep asking ourselves in order to generate business. At the end of the day, CIOs are bothered about TCO and ROI. Certainly end consumers is not our audience, since they don't need our product. But if we go to a targeted segment where harsh working conditions exist like mining, manufacturing, oil & gas, logistics, transportation, military, and automobiles, etc where engineers or executives have to be equipped with gadgets or devices ruggedized to handle shocks, dust or heat, we do not face difficulty in selling Toughbooks. Normal PC or handheld can not survive in harsh conditions. Thus, total cost of ownership is not a concern in mission critical environments.

How does your range of Toughbooks cater to different consumer needs?
In the past, we contributed a lot to the targeted industries. But now, tablets are fast becoming a preferred medium to access applications in enterprises. So the challenge for us was to provide a ruggedized tablet platform to cater to the demands in this space. Last two years we have spent in creating a miniaturized, ruggedized tablet platform. New devices such as Toughpad FZ-G1 which is the world's first Windows 8 enterprise-grade ruggedized tablet and Toughpad JT-B1 which is a seven-inch Android tablet have helped us to provide our customers more options.

How big is the Toughbook business for Panasonic?
If we are talking about worldwide PC market, our marketshare would be even less than 1% which is very low. But if we consider the ruggedized PC market where we have more than 60% markethsare, we are very well placed. This is a segment where players had to exit market because of the losses. However, Panasonic has been able to sustain this business unit quite profitably. Our foremost priority is to increase and expand our customer network which will helps us achieve sustainable growth.

Is the ruggedized segment keeping your hopes alive for further growth in the absence of competition?
It is true that there are not many players in the ruggedized PC space. There are only few of them such as Getac and Itronix, etc. But the other players are not able to keep pace with the times and have to stop their business. This year Itronix announced that they will discontinue this business. However, Panasonic believes that the ruggedized PC and device is poised for a high growth in next six years. In my opinion, the ruggedized PC market is set to grow at steady pace of 6-7% whereas the ruggedized tablet space is set to grow as much faster pace than PCs. The tablets are growing rapidly. At present, the sales are more on the side of ruggedized PCs but we are hopeful that tablets will surpass PCs in the ruggedized segment. Our ruggedized tablet sales in 2012 were less than 10% but it was more because we had just announced the tablet in 2012.