Hitachi aims at 25% Indian market share for HDDs

After having launched its 'doorstep pick-up and replacement'
initiative directed towards easing the pain for its Indian channel community,
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies is targeting at achieving 25 percent market
share of the Indian HDD market within a year.

"We want to be number one in this geography. This is our
goal for the near future. At present, we have 10 percent to 12 percent market
share in India. We are aiming at getting 25 percent market share within a
year," explained, Jaya Dharan, GM, Asia Pacific S&S HQ, Hitachi Global
Storage Technologies.

The company's initiative towards providing doorstep pick-up
for replacement is seen by many as a way to better establish the brand and help
the channel community in concentrating more towards sales rather than managing
logistics.

"India is a big market for us and we know that this
market has its own unique requirements and that is why we have taken some
initiatives exclusive for this geography. For instance, we have our five-year
warranty program only for this region. And we have just launched this channel
focused initiative to provide replacement of HDDs right at the customer's
doorstep," he added.

As part of this service program, a partner can register the
complaint through a toll-free number, e-mail or fax. The courier service, UPS,
would pick up the faulty drive from the partner and deliver a new one within 72
hours. Within India, Neoteric Infomatique and CyberStar Infocom distribute
Hitachi's products.

"With the launch of the Hitachi Service Support there is
no need to set up service centers and no need to return hard drive units to
other city. We are taking it upon ourselves to come and collect the drives from
partners, no matter where in India the channel partner is based," Dharan
informed.

Commenting on the existing Indian gray market for HDDs,
Dharan said, "There are people selling our products after getting them
directly from places like Singapore. However, I am sure that end-customers will
see good reason not to buy our products from the grey market and would go to an
authorized reseller only," he explained.

As India continues to attract investments by companies like
LG, Nokia and Samsung directed towards manufacturing mobile handsets and other
electronic equipment, Hitachi sees this as an opportunity to become a part of
the overall IT ecosystem.

"When it comes to our products, we work very closely
with local IT manufacturers like Zenith or HCL. Now keeping this mobile
manufacturing activity in mind, we see a good opportunity for local solution
providers to provide application specific content in this area," explained,
Karthik Laxman, Regional Manager—Channels, Hitachi Global Storage.

With an aim to encourage localized research and development
in the consumer electronics form factor area, the company has its CE lab in
China where innovative ideas to develop new form factors and products can be
incubated. "Ideas can be incubated in our lab in China and we are quite
open to doing it with Indian companies as well. With the emergence of products
like digital video cameras, PVRs, smart phones, MP3 players and telematics, we
sincerely believe that there is going to be a huge opportunity in this CE
segment," Laxman explained.

ZIA ASKARI