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Ashwani Sachdeva
Member,
JKCDA
How big is the Jammu IT market?
Today, on average, there 4,000 PCs sold in the market. While the active resellers in the market are about 100, there are around 500 resellers operating sporadically. The market is growing by 10 to 15 percent every year.
What are the drivers for IT growth?
IT has become mainstay of any industry today. People here have realized the need to have an IT infrastructure in place.
The home segment here is also looking upbeat. Of the total IT sales, 25 percent comes from this segment. The rest comes from education and SMBs, equally.
What are the buying trends?
Notebook demand has picked up in the market. The ratio of notebooks to desktops sales would be 60:40.
The demand for assembled desktops has decreased. They seem to have lost their sheen vis-à-vis branded PCs. The ratio of branded to assembled PC sales is almost 90:10.
The education market is giving a major fillip to the IT adoption in the market.
More and more schools and educational institutions are embracing IT as an integral part of the education. There as many as 50 educational institutes in the city.
The latest trend we see in the market is the adoption of thin clients. There are many industries in the market that are looking at technologies like virtualization and storage.
What are the key challenges faced by resellers?
The major problem any channel partner faces is that of post-sales support from the vendors. There have been times when the turnaround time has extended to a month. This needs to be resolved if the partners are expected to do good business.
What activities are organized by the city’s IT association?
The Jammu and Kashmir Computer Dealers Association (JKCDA) was formed in 1998 and has close to 100 members.
The association has become very aggressive of late in resolving partner issues. Meetings are usually held on quarterly basis. |