Felice: Upbeat

Calcutta, Dec. 6: Dell is betting big on the east as 10 per cent of the nation’s PC buyers are from this region.

India is also set to be the third largest country for Dell in the Asia-Pacific region after Japan and China in the next one to two years.

Dell India, with Rs 1,800-crore business, is now targeting the small office/home office (SOHO) segment, the government, manufacturing units and banking and financial services institutions. The company will use the Dell direct model for its business.

“India is one of the fastest growing regions for us globally with a 93 per cent growth in unit shipments in the third quarter this fiscal over the same period last year. In the last five years, the growth trajectory in India has even outpaced that of the US during the same initial time period. We chose to consolidate our business with large enterprises before going direct with the SOHO, government and consumers at large. We are quite excited with the prospects in the East and have ramped up our sales force in the region. It will also cater to the Northeast,” said Steve Felice, president-Asia Pacific/Japan, Dell Asia Pte Ltd.

Felice was in the city for Infocom 2006 today after attending a function in Chennai yesterday, where an architectural model of Dell’s proposed $30-million computer manufacturing plant was unveiled.

Around 30 to 40 per cent of the PCs in the East are bought by the government. Dell is in talks with the state government to offer its products for various projects.

“Our commitment to the East would give consumers the chance to interact directly with the company. We also offer on-site service or repair facilities for offices and residences and the option of fixing problems through a remote sensing programme,” added Rajan Anandan, vice-president and general manager, Dell India.

The company, which has a 45 per cent market share in the large enterprises segment, has also cornered a 15 per cent share in the SOHO/SMB segment, the initiative of which was started three quarters ago. The company would also consider introducing its printers and software peripherals in due course of time, Felice said.

The Chennai plant, which will start manufacturing in the first half of 2007, will initially make desktop and server products for the domestic market. In future, it would also look at exports.