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Girish Kumar Rajagopalan
VP,
Kollam Computer Dealers Association
How big is the Kollam IT market?
Kollam has around 70 registered partners selling around 800 PCs a month. Apart from Kollam town, there are several smaller towns such as Karunagappally, Kottarakara, Chavara, which are mini trade hubs within the district. Kollam, like many places in Kerala, has been hit by the slowdown. The local economy is also dependent on lakhs of Malayalees who work in the Gulf; many of whom are reported to have lost jobs and are returning back. In the last three months, IT sales have plunged by 50 percent.
What are the drivers for IT growth?
The home and SOHO segment are the main IT demand drivers generating 70 percent of the sales. The remaining contribution is collectively made by the education and corporate segment. Several export-based industries such as fisheries and cashew processing firms based here contribute to the demand.
What are the buying trends?
The demand for notebooks has picked up since the last two years. However, due to the price sensitivity, assembled desktops are preferred with 80 percent of the market for desktops being dominated by assemblers.
What are the key challenges faced by resellers?
Currently, the biggest problem is the slowdown; this has resulted in cut-throat competition among resellers. Apart from that, we have all the problems of a typical upcountry market. None of the vendors have their service centers here. Some of the vendors try to cater to the post-sales issues with the help of engineers who serve the consumers of Trivandrum.
Another problem worrying resellers is that only seven of them enjoy direct billing from distributors. Rest of them are dependent on sub-distributors.
What are the activities organized by your association?
For the last few months, the activities have been quite less. Major problems are solved with other associations of the state and the All Kerala Merchants Association. Some time back, we had launched an antipiracy drive with Microsoft. We plan to hike-up our activities and address the issues early. |