|
Sudeep Garg
Member,
GCTA
How big is the Gwalior IT market?
We have 150 active channel partners in the market. This includes all the major players as well as the small time dealers. The channel community collectively sells about 1,000 PCs. The IT market over here has been growing at the rate of 20 percent over the last couple of years.
What are the drivers for IT growth?
Gwalior is fast becoming an educational hub. This has opened up lot of opportunities for partners. Every year, about 50,000 students come here for studies. We already have five different universities here and several private ones like Amity are about to enter the market.
The other predominant segments are home and government. There have been instances where a government department has purchased 400 PCs in a year. The home and educational segments constitute about 40 percent each, while the rest comes from the government segment.
What are the buying trends?
The demand for notebooks have increased, especially with the student community. On an average, 300 notebooks get sold every month.
Home segment is driving the demand for desktops with 700 desktops being sold on an average per month. Of the total, about 450 are assembled desktops, while the rest are branded desktops.
Printers are also hugely popular in the market—especially the all-in-ones.
What are the key challenges faced by resellers?
The market is quite disorganised as products are often available without a proper bill. As a result, dealers can sell products at a much lower price. This hampers the overall welfare of the channel.
Vendors should look at educating the channel on ethical business practices. It will not only benefit them, but also help the entire channel community in the long run.
What activities are organized by the city’s IT association?
Our association, Gwalior Computer Traders’ Association (GCTA), has been actively involved in promoting the use of genuine software.
We have 78 registered members and all follow ethical business practices. The association was formed almost five years ago. |