Skorydov announces new product; wants to expand channels

Mumbai-based Skorydov Systems is now looking at expanding its channel network across India. At the same time, the
company has announced plans of launching its second product in another six months after the initial
success of the PC Slate.

Skorydov is planning to launch a handheld cum telephone having GSM and CDMA technology in another six months. It will be a smaller version of the PC Slate, which was launched in August 2001. The PC slate is just like a
Tablet PC and has been developed in India with parts sourced from all over the world and manufactured in Korea. 

"The PDA would just like be the Palm but could also be used as a telephone. The pricing has not been fixed as yet but it will
not be a low cost PDA. 

None of our products are targeting the low cost segment. It's wrong that India is a price sensitive
market because this segment is present in all countries," said Saakar Yadav, MD, Skorydov Systems.

The handheld will be a smaller version of the PC Slate therefore the configuration would be WiFi enabled and also has a digital camera. Therefore it would have a 32 bit processor, flash storage of eight MB or 16 MB. It would also have USB and standard serial port, internal microphone/speaker and rechargeable batteries. Both Microsoft and Red Hat
Linux operating system are available on the PC Slate. 

Ingram Micro is the national distributor of Skorydov, which has a channel network of nearly 100 dealers. The company has its
network spread out in all the metros- Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune and also a few other smaller cities. 

"Now we want to expand this network across India but we have not fixed any numbers as yet. Skorydov is not looking at
specialized dealers to sell this product," stated Yadav. It is also selling its product through the vertical segments and has a
clientele consisting of corporate from various sectors like banking, telecom etc and is currently in talks with others like
Orange. It is looking at providing a complete wireless network to the corporate. Therefore it is going to tie up with Sixth
Sense, an ISP.  

For starters, Skorydov will provide this WiFi network at Nariman Point,
Mumbai. "Skorydov is now looking at launching a new product every year which will
also increase our brand presence. Over the years the number of new products to be
launched would increase. Until today we have sold 5,000 PC slates in the Indian market. Presently our products are selling in
large numbers outside the country. 

This is mainly because importing the product is proving to be expensive due to the high
duty structure in India," pointed out Yadav. On the manufacturing front Skorydov is looking out for an Indian manufacturer and is in talks with Tata Telecom and D-Link
(Singapore). 

Nancy Sudheer