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Desi laptop vendors ready to face competition

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DQW Bureau
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With MNC products made duty free, stiff competition awaits
between indigenous and MNC laptop vendors

The enforcement of WTO guidelines after being the hot topic of
discu-ssions for more than a year, will finally come into place in January 2005.
The import duty on all products being brought to India will be scrapped off. As
a result, all MNC products that are imported will not be charged a duty, thus
offering customers a slash of prices.

This also translates into more competition between the
indigenous and MNC laptop vendors. Most indigenous man-ufacturers have one
common way to combat this competi-tion that is yet to come. They all plan to
hike up the value-adds in the laptops they pro-vide. "We plan to bundle up
a couple of things with the laptops and also have imme-diate after-sales
service," said R Manikandan, LG's Deputy GM, Sales and Marketing of IT
products.

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LG also plans to come up with a one year and three-year warranty
for the laptops as well as setting up a 24 by 7 call center support to answer
the queried of end-users. A similar opinion is shared by Kamlesh Nehlani of
Panatron, who is into making assembled lap-tops. He said that one has to find
more USPs of their pro-ducts to remain profitable. "We intend to give a
fully loaded laptop at the cost of an entry-level laptop of an MNC," he
added.

While some other desi manufacturers like Devita Saraf, Director
(Marketing) of Zenith Computers feel that vendors will have to compete not just
on the price factor, but for quality and service as well. She said that
cost-conscious buyers will be looking for the latter more than the price.
"Since Zenith laptops already cost lower than laptops of MNCs, we will have
value-adds for our machines. These value-adds will be done when the market
becomes more competitive," she remarked.

DQW News Bureau

Mumbai

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