Touch PCs Account for less than 1% of the Worldwide Mobile PC Market

The ministry of HRD launched the worlds cheapest touchscreen tablet PC priced at `1,500 primarily aimed at student community, reads a press release. The touchscreen tablet computing device is expected to be introduced in higher educational institutions from 2011, the release further added.

However it has been quite sometime since we heard something related to the $35 touch tablet launched last year in July. The Indian touchscreen PC market too isnt making the right noises.

At a recent road show, there was a mad rush to experience the innovative and unique touch All-In-One (AIO) from a leading PC vendor, however the enthusiastic crowds response wasnt raising the spirits of the stall manager, who in fact was quite miffed by the dismal number of sales queries.

Touch is most certainly an intuitive mechanism for users and touch technology has been in use in mobiles, opening up a new world of interaction and is a must have simply for everything at the fingertips experience.

A fairly new concept in the Indian market, the touchscreen PC isnt practical. We are used to working with devices where the keyboard is placed horizontally and the screen is placed vertically. But when we use touchscreens, both of these should be placed either vertically or horizontally. Thus for serious computing with a lot of typing, touchscreens are still not adopted, as it is not clear on how they can be adapted ergonomically, reasons Vinod Kumar, CTO, Novatium Solutions.

Challenging Touch

As the touch technology wave sweeps the market, the truth of the matter is that for most users, touchscreen PC may not be any different from their usual PC/laptop.

Touch PCs account for less than 1% of the worldwide mobile PC market and havent done well in India and globally. The biggest hurdle for these devices is the price point. All in 1 touchscreens are priced between `50-80 thousand and at this price, acceptance from users is very difficult. There are few high-end NB models that are touchscreen but they do not sell much as neither consumers nor businesses see compelling usage models and are prepared to pay for them, says Vishal Tripathi, principal research analyst, Gartner.

Tripathis sentiment finds resonance in Singhs statement too. As the product director, Dell India, Shishir Singh says Touch hasnt touched the customer cord that is, mobiles. We are in the middle of a customer study trying to figure out what the customers are looking for in a touch PC. And no surprises, here as a majority of the consumers have said that while touch is good for mobiles, they dont see value in touchscreen PC and they dont see themselves using touch on PC screens.

Moreover touchscreen PC havent been able to find favor with the vendors but few of them take the risk to go-to-market with a touch PC product. The HP touch portfolio has 2 productsthe Touchsmart (at the top end) costing around `60 thousand and DreamScreen at `20 thousand with the objective of simplifying PC usage even for non-PC users with an icon based interface.

Relative to the touch mobile, the touchscreen PC is nowhere near the mark since most of the first time desktop PC purchase is done by users looking to use the PC for home-office work. However the DreamScreen has met with reasonable success and sales is expected to increase perhaps by bringing in people not in the PC fold, says Vinay Awasthi, director, HP PSG.

The surprise here is that while the consumers do appreciate and admire the touchscreen PC and their unique touch experience, yet when it comes to zeroing in on which product to buy, they still go for the non-touch PCs.

It is true that even though consumers appreciate and admire touchscreen PCs, we see that while purchasing, average Indian consumer go for the low-priced product because touchscreen PC is a super premium investment. In India 70% of the buyers are price conscious, and they prefer to buy an assembled PC which is cost effective and suffice the usage. The rest 30% are brand conscious buyers who would go for this product either to experience the new trend or to have lavish lifestyle of having a second PC at home. Touchscreen PCs are a subset of this 30% brand conscious buyers, explains Rajesh Thadani, director consumer business unit, HSB, Lenovo India.

Kumar is the sole dissenting voice who asserts that the cost of the device is immaterial and is dependent on what the user is looking for and value for money is purely subjective. If the consumer is able to appreciate the experience of a good touch based device then he does not look for price. But if the consumer is really looking for a value for money mobile then as much as he appreciates the touch based mobile, the consumer would still go for a lower end model that has all the desired feature, says Kumar.

Touch in the Developed World

India might have a reason to rejoice here. Globally the touch PCs havent fared well and India too follows. In the last 1 year, the total PC sales were around 15-20 lakh units and out of this the share of touch PC was less than 15 lakh units which is about 1%, says Sanjoy Bhattacharya, product group marketing head, IT, LG India.

Singh begs to differ citing the example of Dell USA wherein it is difficult to find AIO without touch, however there is a need to offer good, exciting applications on touch PC.

Ditto for Awasthi who too agrees that in the developed world touch PCs have done better. In the developed world, the usage of touchscreen PC is very different. It is used more like a family device by affluent families, he adds.

Looking Ahead

Given the current market response to the touchscreen PC, many of us may be tempted to write off the innovative technology citing exorbitant pricing cost and lack of interesting applications as the key factors. However vendors like HP, Dell, and Lenovo are highly optimistic of its growth prospects even as the current market scenario may be otherwise.

As the touchscreen PC manage to make the transition as an entertainment hub in urban households encompassing images, movies, music and games applications, the touchscreen PC market is definitely opening up however it is going to take another couple of years, says Awasthi.

Even though in the current context, customers arent seeing value in investing in a touch AIO and from the usage point of view, there is an absence of need on the consumer end. Most of the people use their home computers for office work using MS-Excel and MS-Word. The need establishment factor is certainly there. When the consumer sees that the applications enable touch, they see sense, says Singh.

As of now, says Thadani, the Indian market for touchscreen PCs is nascent and is just a subset of AIO PC. The future of the touch PCs in India will usher in an era, and we believe there would be a significant growth in AIO PCs and a 100% upstream in people using touchscreens, he says emphatically.