Intel Announces Rs 5,000 Desktop For The Indian Market
New Delhi – Intel Corp., the largest computer chipset maker, on Thursday announced the launch of its inexpensive desktop computing devices that starts at Rs.5,000 (around $125) — in a move to further penetrate the computer market in India. The company plans to target first-time computer users in India to drive its growth on the low-margin-high-volume business model.
“We realize there is a pressing need for industry and government to collaborate to enable people to connect to the Internet,” said R. Sivakumar, Intel’s South Asia’s managing director of sales and marketing group.
“The Internet is immensely capable of transforming lives and the future of our country. Through the [Connected Indians] movement, we hope to achieve precisely that,” he added.
Intel Thursday displayed a prototype of a range of low-priced “nettops” that are to be introduced in the country over the next several months.
Intel plans to launch Atom processor-based computer devices starting from Rs 5,000 in “the next few months.” These devices will work as central processing units and carry out all the functions of a normal computer.
These low-priced devices, which run on Intel’s new Atom processor, will be available in the range of Rs. 5,000, but they would not include a display, a spokeswoman for the company said on Thursday.
The idea behind supplying the unit without a display is that users will be able to use their television sets or other displays in the home with the device, she added. The devices will be offered in the country by domestic and multinational PC vendors and local system integrators.
The demonstration of the new devices in Delhi was part of the launch of a joint industry and government initiative, called “Connected Indians,” which aims to increase Internet connectivity in India, so that it reaches a billion Indians.
Collaborating with Intel are industry partners such as original equipment manufacturers and Internet service providers, as well as the government.
Less than a decade ago, personal computers came attached with a price tag of more than Rs.50,000, and the average person could at best own an “assembled” desktop at anything between Rs.20,000 — Rs.25,000.
Intel gave the initiative a “kick-start,” by bringing industry, government, and other organizations together on this, but Intel does not run the program, the spokeswoman said.
The Indian government intends to have 500 million Indians connected to the Internet, with more than 100 million broadband connections, and 100 million broadband enabled devices in the field by 2012. The country has a population of over 1.13 billion people.
“The [Connected Indians] movement will bring with it rapid broadband deployment and help harness the powers of Internet to accelerate inclusive social and economic change,” Communications and Information Technology Minister A. Raja said during the announcement of the initiative.
Internet penetration in India is currently very low. India had 4.6 million broadband subscribers at the end of July, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
The decision by the Indian government to auction spectrum in the 2.5 GHz and 2.3 GHz bands for broadband wireless access services (BWA) is expected by analysts to give a boost to wireless broadband in India.
Based on Intel’s Atom processor — the chipmaker’s lowest priced processor launched earlier this year — OEMs such as Acer, HCL, Zenith, Intex, Lenovo, Wipro and Novatium, showcased various designs at the event.
The launch of the economical connectivity scheme marked the coming together of Intel, the various OEMs and the government, as well as other stakeholders such as talent developer NIIT, telecom operators such as Tata Teleservices, Tata Communication and Reliance Communications, and industry lobbies CII, Assocham and WiMax Forum.
India is expected to have 20 percent of WiMAX subscribers globally by 2012, the WiMAX Forum said earlier this month. By then 27.5 million Indians will be WiMAX users, the nonprofit, industry-led forum added. The forum draws a distinction between subscribers and users, as there could be more than one user for a WiMAX subscription.
Intel has also signed a memorandum of understanding with state-owned telecommunications service provider Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) that they would be to jointly working to market in India broadband internet with wireless solutions including WiMax. Intel, for example, will assist BSNL in a pilot WiMAX solution that is spectrum efficient and economical for rural markets. BSNL will support Intel in developing blueprints of WiMAX deployments which will serve as models for other service providers in India and abroad, the companies said.
Separately, home-grown PC-maker Zenith Computers also announced its foray into the low-cost computer market to target new customers. Zenith’s low-cost desktops and laptops are priced between Rs 11,990 and Rs 14,990 and will work on Windows Vista and XP operating systems. “People need a product at all price points and we are providing that… we are not restricting ourselves to this,” Raj Saraf, chairman and managing director, Zenith, said in a statement.
The company maintained that margins are same even for low-cost computers in the percentage terms. “It is on the absolute level that they differ for high-cost and low-cost PCs,” he said.
Microsoft has partnered with Zenith for the computers, and the PC maker plans to sell 1,00,000 units by March 2009. Asked if computer prices could go down further, Saraf replied, “I do not think so but if duty comes down, it is a possibility.”