Upcountry markets strike gold on Dhanteras

Manisha K

New Delhi

November 19th, 2007

This year on Dhanteras, the upcountry regions witnessed record sales of
laptops. Channel partners from B and C-class cities saw an increase in the
number of people buying laptops and desktops, apart from MP3 and MP4 players.
Partners like Dilip Kumar Mehra of Patna-based Sona Infotech observed an augment
in the number of customers from the previous years. "We sold around 100-125
laptops and desktops from our counter on Dhanteras. This is a 40-50 percent
increase in sale of laptops and desktops as compared to last year." Even
the week after Dhanteras, the sales of laptops and desktops was good and the
company sold around 10-12 laptops the following week. "Toshiba laptops
ruled the roost. We had maximum buyers for Toshiba laptops. Apart from Toshiba,
we had buyers for Lenovo, Acer, HP and Compaq, " he said. On the success of
his sale, he said that they didn't introduce any scheme; and the bottomline was
pricing. Apart from Mehra, there were other channel partners too who benefited
from the festivity.

Arun Rungta of Digital Equipment, Patna sold more than 100 laptops and
desktops on Dhanteras. Rungta said, "A lot of people bought laptops. The
ratio of laptops to desktops was 70:30." When asked the reason for people
preferring laptops to desktops Rungta said, "People preferred laptops as
they can use it on the move and also the price difference between laptops and
desktops have reduced." Though Akhilesh Kumar of Kailsumi Infotech India,
who supplies IT equipments to companies, was not directly affected by this
festivity, he said, "But yes, there were some employers who got laptops for
their relatives and we sold around seven to eight laptops on Dhanteras itself.

Similarly Jamshedpur-based Ashok Narayan of Narayan International voiced a
similar opinion. He sold around 100-150 PCs and said that the buyers were mainly
students.

Manish Mahrotra of Allahabad-based Tritech Enterprises too saw an increase in
sale of PCs on Dhanteras, having sold 90 odd laptops and desktops himself.
"One very interesting thing I observed this time was that the buyers were
mainly business men and small shopkeepers. Since VAT is going to be implemented
from December 1, there was an increase in the sale," observed Mahrotra. But
here the sale of desktops was more than laptops, as small businessmen were the
predominant buyers. Naveen Gupta of Krishna Agency, Patna though wasn't too
happy with his sales. "We sold a mere 16-17 laptops and weren't able to
take advantage of the festivity, but there were many channel partners who had
sold more than 100 on the single day," he shared.

In the metros, partners weren't able to cash in on the festivity and the sale
was normal. Delhi-based Ajaya Kumar of Park Electronics was disappointed as he
sold around 12-13 laptops during the festival season. Even Sandeep Chillar of
Delhi-based Landmark Technology was able to sell just 15-20 laptops and five
desktops.

Asked about the reason behind the increase in the sale of IT equipment in B
and C-class cities, Gupta quipped, "In last few years, awareness of IT has
increased. Earlier they were only a handful of people who knew about computers
and only few could afford it but now the scenario has changed. The prices have
also been slashed down, at the same time people too have become aware of
IT." In Patna, the buyers were mainly students between the age group of
18-25 years. Apart from students, there were buyers from business and executive
class too.

Even Ludhiana wasn't left behind in this festivity, and Paramjit Singh Juneja
of Ludhiana-based Secant Technologies sold around 20 laptops during the festival
season and there was a 50 percent increase in sales of laptops and desktops
compared to last year with the ratio of laptops to desktops at 90:10. "The
sale of laptops was more because laptops gives you the opportunity to flaunt.
And buyers were mainly parents who bought for their kids," observed Juneja.