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Moushami Nag
Member,
Computer Dealers Association of Dhanbad
How big is the Dhanbad IT market?
There are about 25 active resellers. On an average, 70 PCs get sold every month in the market, which has seen a growth of 12 percent over the past two years. According to me, it will grow by at least 15 percent this year.
What are the drivers for IT growth?
The primary growth engine is the education segment. School students, regular college students and engineering students have been fuelling the demand for IT. 80 percent of the demand comes from the education segment, which will continue to bring more opportunities for resellers. The remaining 20 percent comes from home users who like to buy PCs just like that. Not many businesses over here are IT-savvy; we hardly see any demand from them.
What are the buying trends?
The market over here leans toward notebooks. Of the total sales of PCs, about 25 would be desktops and 45 would be notebooks. Mostly, notebooks priced in the range of Rs 40,000-45,000 get sold; in desktops it would be in the range of Rs 18,000-25,000. However, the price-conscious segment goes in for assembled desktops which would cost them not more than Rs 12,000. The demand for peripherals and networking products is also flourishing.
What are the key challenges faced by resellers?
One of the major challenges here is educating consumers. Most of them do not even know the difference between hardware and software. Service support is another issue. Most vendors are here for selling, but have no intention of providing any kind of post-sales support. HP in this regard is better, while Dell’s service support is the poorest. They take even a month’s time to get back to us. There are many online formalities, and nobody has that kind of time to go online and deal with all those formalities all the time.
What are the activities organized by your association?
The Computer Dealers Association of Dhanbad was formed two years ago. We currently have 24 members, and hold our meetings once a month. We are planning to organize our IT fair around August or September, and are working to find some sponsors. |