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Mumbai, Jul 22: After witnessing a not-so-happening market for the ultra small laptops in India over the last few years, hardware manufacturers are all set to experiment with a new segment of small and compact laptops. Unlike ultra thin laptops, that were as small as 7 inch in size and were largely used to meet the internet surfing requirements, these are about 8.9 inch and are fully loaded to meet the needs of corporate work.
Hewlett-Packard launched its 8.9 inch Mini Notebook in India last month. ASUS's 8.9 inch and 10 inch laptops are expected to hit the market by the next month. According to sources, Dell and Acer are expected to follow suit.
Anurag Arora, country manager-business notebooks, personal systems group, Hewlett-Packard India, said, "These are light weight laptops and fully loaded. At the same time, earlier, one had to pay about 30% more for these small form factor machines as against the traditional machines."
He added that these laptops are largely targeted at the youth in India. According to the companies, these laptops could range from Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 and would function as a second portability device.
Stanley Wu, product manager, notebooks and EeePC, ASUS India, said, "We have seen a huge demand for our 8.9 inch and 10 inch notebooks in the global market and we expect to launch them in India by next month. For both these products, we expect a sale of 15,000 units per month." He added that ASUS will target educational institutions for the products.
Although the manufacturers are largely targeting the youth, analysts feel that students might not pick this segment of laptops and it will take time for the companies to capture the mass market. Sumanta Mukherjee, analyst, PC research, IDC India, says, "The ultra thin laptops were not that popular with the Indian buyers since they were not really looking at the mobility factor and preferred a full key board laptop." He added that though this segment of laptops is fully loaded, it will take time to pick up with the students and mass consumers. "However, the laptops might be popular among corporate users who travel frequently," he added.
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