|
Kirit Thakkar
Vice President,
ACMA
How big is the Ahmedabad IT market?
Ahmedabad is the IT hub for the Gujarat market. On average, about 10,000 PCs are sold in the market per month. There are about 1,000 dealers in the market, which has been growing at 30 to 40 percent rate annually.
What are the drivers for IT growth?
The IT growth in the market is fueled by the upcountry market in the state. A lot of demand comes from these unexplored tier-2 and tier-3 cities.
Another major reason has been the growth of the education market. The numbers of engineering colleges have gone up from 15 to 80.
Besides this, a slew of new projects started on the outskirts of the city have boosted the IT market tremendously. The primary segments are home, SMBs, corporate sector, and education. About 50 percent of the demand comes from corporate sector and the rest comes from SMBs, education and home.
What are the buying trends?
Of the total PC sales, 60 percent comprises notebooks and the rest constitutes desktops. In case of desktops, branded players have gained an edge over assembled—the ratio is 60:40.
Security has become a key concern for most organizations these days. Hence, the security products market has grown exponentially. The government has made it mandatory for all business concerns to have a CCTV or some recording device.
What are the key challenges faced by resellers?
The usual post-sales support issues continue to create problem. Adding to our woes are issues like tax on back-end incentives and service tax on software.
The vendors should co-operate and not wash away their hands. We want to do good business and not waste time running around to deal with these issues.
What activities are organized by the city’s IT association?
Ahmedabad Computer Merchant Association (ACMA) was formed in 1996 and has 325 registered members. We have our meetings twice a month and our major initiative is our IT show that we organize every year. |