By Varun Aggarwal
Better late than never seems to be Lenovo’s new line, as it finally announced its strategy for the lucrative SMB market.
The PC vendor recently launched two new ThinkPad Edge notebooks—starting at Rs 34,000—and ultraportable ThinkPad X100e, starting at Rs 29,950. The vendor will soon add Think AIOs (all-in-ones) targeting SMBs.
The vendor also plans to increase its SMB partner base from the existing 250 to 500, and its value-added resellers (VARs) from the current 24 to 50 by the end of 2010.
“We couldn’t tap the huge opportunity in the SMB market earlier as we neither had enough reach, nor a complete portfolio. But now, we are already seeing good response for our value line B series. With the launch of the Edge, we want to aggressively go after this segment,” said Amar Babu, Managing Director, Lenovo India.
According to IDC, of the 7.6 million PC units sold in India in 2009, SMB purchases contributed 40 percent. The market is projected to grow to 13.8 million units by 2013, with SMB segment contributing 35 percent. The segment is expected to spend Rs 5,515 crore on PCs in 2010.
Lenovo plans to offer SMB products at all its 1,000 consumer touch points; 350 touch points are already offering them. “Till recently, our retail touch points did not display SMB products. But we’ve realized that a lot of SMBs buy laptops from retail. So we are going to create Think corners,” he added.
Lenovo is also in the process of revamping its exclusive stores. “In addition to making sure that our flagship stores are profitable, we are redesigning their looks. We have designed a couple of stores and are applying the same design to all stores across the country, making them brighter, more colorful and cheerful,” Babu added. |