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Dipak Mortale
Secretary,
Nanded Computer Dealers Association
How big is the Nanded IT market?
We have a small market in Nanded with only 54 resellers selling around 600 PCs per month. We have witnessed around 30 percent growth in the market over the last two years. However, there has been a drop of about 20 percent in the demand for products due to slowdown.
What are the drivers for IT growth in the city?
Home segment is the main driver of IT market contributing around 70 percent of the revenues. This is then followed by the educational and corporate segment that jointly contributes around 30 percent of the revenues. The presence of over 20 educational institutions in the city results in a demand from students and institutes. In the corporate segment, banks are the main demand drivers. Over the last few years, a number of banks like Andhra Bank and ING Vysya Bank have set up base in the city.
What are the buying trends?
Since the home segment is the major driver; there is substantial demand for PCs, networking and lifestyle products. Assembled computers are preferred by customers than branded computers and the ratio of assembled to branded is around 60:40. Notebooks have become quite popular among students. Currently, the ratio of demand for laptops to desktops is 70:30.
What are the key challenges facing resellers?
Migration is a major problem that we face. Inspite of housing number of educational institutes, there aren’t many job opportunities here, leading to migration of skilled man power. Secondly, most of the vendors have their service centers here, but they do not provide proper support. Even if a product or a component is under warranty, the service center will take two months to replace it.
What are the activities organized by your association?
We are an eight-year oldassociation with 25 members. We regularly hold seminars, dealer meets and IT exhibitions. We also take up issues that affect dealers of the city. For instance, since October, we have been boycotting Dell as the vendor was asking us to sell products at a price higher than the one quoted on the website. |