'There’s enough room for all laptop vendors'

Four months ago, Mumbai-based vendor PCS had claimed that it would be among
the top three in all product segments by the end of this year. It is definitely
working hard towards its goal as it has now launched its low-cost notebook
called Mustang in competition with other MNC brands in the country. Nancy
Sudheer met up with Arun Bhattacharya, executive V-P (channel), to learn more on
Mustang:

The market opinion is that your entry in the low-cost notebook category
has been late. What is your comment on this?

Notebooks took off in India just a year ago, and PCS was gearing up for the
right moment. In the mean time, PCS has put its channel, service and support
network in place. It is also essential to offer the correct processing speed,
and therefore we have the PIV with 1.8 Ghz speed which is a mobile CPU. There
are a lot of vendors offering low-cost solutions but also with the desktop CPU.
PCS wanted to target the middle-class segment in India and was waiting to launch
the right product. We have also trained our engineers who are all geared up now
to look into support of these products. Media campaigns of these products will
also start soon, across the country. For the channels, we are also bringing out
a demo machine scheme and specific dealers will be appointed as specialized PCS
notebook dealers.

PCS has traditionally been a vendor targeting the
government segment. Are you planning to target this new product at the same
segment aggressively?

Volumes are important in any business today; therefore we will definitely
look at the government segment. Like the PC market, this product does not
achieve that high a volume. However, by the end of the year PCS is looking at a
sale of 400 to 500 notebooks.

PCS has been targeting this product at the middle
management and also aggressively through channels. Are you looking strongly at
the retail segment?

As notebooks require special skills to sell, specialized partners are being
appointed across the country for notebooks. Many of them are also having retail
outlets and therefore it will naturally be sold aggressively through this
channel.

Now that you have launched the Mustang in the price range
of Rs 60,000—65,000, what are your plans on getting more aggressive with the
price structure?

Price point is essential today, and we are definitely looking at cheaper
solutions even in other segments like servers. Basically, we want to offer a
kitty of low-cost solutions across all our product lines including the niche
products. And at PCS this is going to be a continuous process.

There are also regional brands coming out with low cost
notebook solutions. Does PCS consider these brands as a threat?

Regional brands will never be a threat mainly because these products cater
to a different segment. India being such a vast country, there are various
segments to be catered. Therefore, there is enough room for everyone. The market
will allow all the different brands to coexist.

NANCY SUDHEER in Mumbai