Samsung to have buffer stock for 1 lakh HDDs

To reduce the turnaround time (TAT) for hard disk drive (HDD) replacement,
Samsung India has announced that it would keep a 'rolling buffer stock' of
around 1 lakh units for all these service centers. This is part of the
initiative the company has undertaken to beef its service offerings to
customers.

It is also setting up service centers for its storage products in 60 cities
across India. Besides this, the vendor is setting up a call center number and an
email helpline for addressing customers queries directly.

Vivek Prakash, VP, Samsung India said, "We have an installed base of
around 3 million hard disk drives in India. With these new announcements, we
will provide the same level of service to smaller towns as is offered in bigger
cities.

Vivek Prakash

Samsung will soon introduce a new technology product called Personal Video
Recorder (PVR) through its existing channel partners. Vivek added, "The
storage market for the non-PC segment in India is expected to go up to 8.5% in
the next year. We will work hard in the near future to maintain our leadership
position."

The company has announced a five-year warranty plan for its entire HDD range.
With these announcements, the company has also introduced the implementation of
'Zero Day-Turn Around Service' (Zero TAT), starting from September 30 2004.
Under Zero TAT, all Samsung HDDs received at any of the 60 service centers will
get replaced within 24 hours.

FAIZ ASKARI