HCL eyes 20 pc laptop marketshare by 2011

KOLKATA, INDIA: Eying a big catch in the fast growing laptop segment, HCL is planning to emerge as a strong player in the space, targeting 20 per cent marketshare over a span of two years.

On the sidelines of the ‘HCL Mobile Excitement’ campaign in Punjab and Haryana, the company had declared that the sales in the laptop segment is growing at a rate of 22 per cent against 3.2 per cent in the desktop space.

“In the next two years, we are targeting to increase our marketshare in the laptop segment from about seven percent to 20 per cent, and we are voraciously campaigning to achieve this,” said George Paul, executive VP, HCL Infosystems.

With 6.4 per cent marketshare in the laptop segment presently, the company is reported to have sold seven million units across the country, out of which 35 per cent of the total sales accounted in the laptop segment.

Company officials in HCL Infosystem’s eastern division said that the company has recently grown very aggressive over its channel plans and is eying big channel players to emerge as a leader.

“Considering other brands in the market, RoI is much higher on HCL laptops. We have good presence in the enterprise and SMB sector, although most of our deployments are based on desktops. To have a steady 20 per cent growth on a YoY basis, we need to seriously work on our corporate clients and focus on end-user segment, which will lead to increase in our channel base,” a senior company official in the East said.

However, the channel community, at least in the East is not very convinced about HCL’s plans to emerge in the top three market leader space.

“The acceptability of HCL is pretty low in the end-user segment. Although their products are good and price is stable in the market, sales of HCL laptops and to an extent desktops, are pretty low. Also, I have not found considerable aggressiveness on HCL’s part in the channel space,” said a dealer based in Kolkata on condition of anonymity.

Commenting over the same, Praveen Pugalia of Computer Gallery said, “This year, in the laptop space, two companies have lost considerable marketshare and Dell has taken on the lead, exploiting the market situation. Also, sales in Toshiba have increased considerably by over 400 per cent on an MoM basis after the company appointed Redington as its distributor and secured a price lead.”

In the backdrop of Toshiba and Dell taking the lead in the emerging market scenario, numerous issues related to HCL’s service has cropped up recently, with partners doubting an expansion plan under the resource constraint of the company.

As after-sales service issues continue to plague the company, and HCL service centers refusing after-sales services, dealers across the nation feel that HCL needs to work on its post-sales support in the first place and then focus on increasing its marketshare and channel presence.