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Ashish Trivedi
Member,
MCDA
How big is the Meerut IT market?
There are 58 active resellers in the market. The IT market here has been affected due to the current economic meltdown. Hardly 450 PCs now get sold in a month.
What are the drivers for IT growth?
There are only two major segments that fuel growth—the home and education segments. About 70 percent of the demand is generated by the home segment while the remaining 30 percent is contributed by the education segment. We have a number of engineering colleges and other education institutes based over here. These hold a lot of promise for the IT market in Meerut.
What are the buying trends?
Even though the education segment offers a lot of promise, the dominance of the home
segment makes it a price-sensitive market. It is for this reason that assembled PCs still exist in the market—and are faring well. However, over the past one and half year, the sales of notebooks have picked up. Today, the notebook-to-desktop ratio stands at 50:50. It is primarily the education institutes which are responsible for the increase in the demand for notebooks.
What are the key challenges faced by resellers?
Presently, the major challenge is the current market scenario. It’s a tough time for small resellers, but bigger players have all the funds to support them through these trying times. Nevertheless, I believe the situation will improve in the next 7-8 months.
Besides this, pricing is a major issue. IT products in Meerut are priced about 5 percent higher than they are priced in markets like New Delhi.
Turnaround time is another problem. For any upcountry market, vendors take about 15 days time. This is certainly not acceptable to any customer. We do not get any kind of assistance from the distributors or vendors.
What are the activities organized by your association?
The Meerut Computer Dealers Association has 65 active members. We work jointly on major problems with the Uttar Pradesh Computer Dealers Association. We usually have our meetings as and when the need arises. Recently we raised our voice against the levy of both VAT and entry taxes in UP. |