Among the leading players, Compaq moved ahead of HCL to emerge as the top desktop vendor in the country with a whopping growth rate of 91%. Among the other big players, Zenith was the most unfortunate with a growth of a mere 2%. It lost out on its USP of ‘MNC value at Indian price’ as MNCs started offering their products at prices comparable to Indian brands. As its next move, Zenith is taking on the assembler market with the tag line "Say no to assemblers’. But whether it will actually make a dent in the market is debatable. Among the top five, only Compaq and IBM have grown above the industry average of 52%. Dell and PCS have also shown huge gains.

In the notebook market, Compaq upstaged last year’s leader IBM to emerge as the top seller in the country. Toshiba, under HCL’s strong sales force managed to grow by over 50%. But the notebook segment still has to combat the age-old deterrent of high prices. Prices need to come down to a level where notebooks can be mass purchased. No such trend was observed in this last fiscal! It remains to be seen if any vendor will take the lead in the following year.

To sum up, overall, a good year for desktop vendors with Compaq taking the top honors away from HCL. Also, the current year, though depressed, provides scope for reasonable growth. The existing low penetration and lack of OC awareness will make sure that India stays as one of the top growth PC economies in the world, especially in the home segment.

Player Strategies

Compaq

It promises to be the new leader of the PC pack. With a phenomenal growth of 91% over its previous year, Compaq has taken the top slot from HCL. The company headed towards the home segment for its kill. Aggressive tactics like retail stores opened every three days and six PCs shipped every hour went a long way in establishing Compaq well in the home segment. The company increased penetration to over 350 retail outlets covering even smaller Indian towns. Other strategies like innovative product design like the Presario color PCs and iPAQ legacy-free desktops helped in raising its value in the home segment to become more than H-P’s and HCL’s combined value. The result was there to see in the number finally achieved. Recently, Compaq consolidated its consumer and commercial operations under a single roof called the Access Business Group. This new group aims to provide a single source for all access products, services and information customers need, whether it’s for personal or business use.

This kind of focus would certainly lead to more gain in the current fiscal. Also, it plans to increase its retail network to over 500 stores with the aim of penetrating further into small B and C class cities. The battle lines are clearly drawn between Compaq and HCL. The others would need colossal efforts to reach out to Compaq and HCL.