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Season’s goodies

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DQW Bureau
New Update



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It’s festive time folks. It’s the time of the year when
every-body is in a holiday mood and shopping also becomes a good pastime. And
coincidentally, the market is flooded with machines at very low prices.

In fact, the consumer never had it so good. At the same time,
he never got confused also so much. The amount of choices he has today is
bewildering. Take for example, the PCs. The price ranges from as low as Rs
15,000 in the case of a Celeron-base machine from the local assembler to as high
as Rs 40,000 for a top-of-the-line MNC brand.

That’s not all. Today, the consumer can even go in for a
laptop, which will cost him no more than Rs 50,000. And then there are plenty of
models and configurations to choose from in the range of Rs 50,000 to Rs 75,000.

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That is as far as machines built around Intel chips are
concerned. You also have the choice of buying machines based on VIA and AMD
processors. These are priced even lower than whatever Intel processors-based
machines are able to offer. And if you want to go even lower, check out the
machines built around refurbished chips.

In this scenario, what can a poor hapless user do. How does
he make a decision about what to buy and what to avoid? More often than not, in
the case of a first time user the decision is based on recommendations from
friends, relatives and acquaintances. Now, without doubt the advice always is
well meaning but not exactly what the actual user requires. What he needs is a
clear idea, which should take into account his requirements.

In fact, awareness is a key factor here. The user is mostly
not aware of which is the right machine for him. For example, if the user wants
to do simple word processing, any low-end system with the most basic processor
will do. On the other hand, if he wants to do high-end graphics then he would
require a faster machine, which can support his load.

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This brings us to the question, do the vendors keep users in
mind when they offer newer and newer systems. No, they don’t. Nobody asks the
customer whether he wants a faster machine or he wants a more efficient machine.
Rather than going in for more speed, vendors should try to position and offer
machines according to the specific needs of the customer. This would not only
buy them customer loyalty, they would be able to get in more first time users in
their fold who normally would have shied away because of the variety of choices
in the market.

 

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