Compaq finally gets it right

Finally a Home PC you can buy

without busting your bank balance



After a long, long time when MNC prices seemed

to determined more by the incomes of MNC employees than that of the mass market one

vendor's finally got it right. Compaq's new Presario 4010 is priced at Rs 48,600 with a

reasonably powerful complement of Celeron 366, 32 MB RAM (DIMM slots so that you can put

up to 512 MB in there), 4.3 GB Ultra DMA hard drive (pretty fast), a AGP video card with 4

MB VRAM, and a 56 K internal modem and a nice software bundle including MS Word, MS Works,

McAfee anti-virus and the ubiquitous Win 98. Compaq claims that the machine is Y2K ready.

A consumer product - minus the

traditional hefty price tag



The Presario 4010 is a pucca

consumer product from the ground up. Designed in Singapore, it's a sexy looking machine

with simple and easy-to-access buttons that let you do mundane but essential things like

selecting tracks on the Audio CD in the CD-ROM drive or launching your browser. The audio

is good - the typically excellent JBL Pro speakers that come in all Compaq Presario

models.

"Come into my showroom",

said the Presario to the family



Compaq's entire strategy

revolves around the channel which has resulted in no less than 65 retail outlets in 32

cities all over India in smaller places like Bellary and Calicut; not just in the metros.

Compaq's aim here is to have the same shopping experience at every Compaq showroom. Will

it work? We'll just have to wait and see.

Service - Carepaq coming soon



Compaq is planning on introducing several

service options that will give customers a choice on what kind of service they want and

for how long a duration - do you want the one year warranty or will you pay more and go

for the extended three year one? This is in the works.

Will consumers pay 15% more for the

Compaq brand name?



This is the crore rupee question. Compaq is

counting on the brand name and superior packaging to sell their latest baby. Obviously

this will work best with the upper middle class segment who are already into buying Nike

shoes and eating at McDonalds. But what about the rest of the market who want value for

money and believe in getting the most for their hard earned paisa? This is the GID

dominated segment that Compaq wants to crack and broaden its sales in the process. While

this is a good first move, more will have to follow to really make an impact. Top notch

service and focused customer care will decide the ultimate success or failure of this

initiative.