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| Visitors on the last day of the computer fair that ended on Sunday. A Telegraph picture |
Siliguri, Feb. 19: Computer-buyers here are becoming more and more brand-conscious.
The trend came to light at the Seventh Computer Fair organised by Kalaidescope, which concluded at Kanchenjunga Stadium here yesterday.
“Until two-three years ago, the market of assembled computers was thriving with 70-80 per cent of the computers bought in Siliguri being non-branded,” said Pinaki Kangsabanik, the chief executive officer, adventure division, Kalaidescope. “So much so that companies selling branded items at our fair faced an uphill task wooing buyers. But this has changed now and the buying behaviour of visitors at this edition of the fair proved just that.”
The fall in prices of electronic goods, coupled with better after-sale service provided by brands, has brought about this trend. “Local assemblers cashed in on the fact that branded companies did not have their service centres in Siliguri,” said Kamal Saha, a businessman. “But now several noted brands have set up their service centres in Siliguri and the price difference between assembled and branded computers has shrunk to about only Rs 2000-3000, which earlier used to be in the range of Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000.”
Kangsabanik said the sale in the annual fair has grown by more than 100 times since it started six years ago, a pointer to Siliguri’s growing IT strength. “We began with only 12 stalls in the first edition and this year we had about 100,” Kangsabanik said.
Saha pegged the annual growth of computer sale in Siliguri at 25 per cent.
The fair, which the organisers said did an estimated business of Rs 1.25 crore, had all the top brands participating with the latest technologies, including laptops with face recognition technology.
“The sale of peripherals and accessories, like pen drives and ipods, was particularly impressive this year,” businessman Rajesh Buthra said. A 1 GB pen drive was available at the fair for just Rs 550, much less than it costs otherwise, which explained the mad rush.
