Samsung eyes 20% share of Indian netbook market

Korean electronics major Samsung is eyeing a 20 per cent share of India's growing netbook market this year as it expands its product portfolio and distribution chain in the country.

The company, which forayed into the netbook segment last year, has a portfolio of nine models in its range, priced between Rs 17,290 and Rs 23,990.

"We expect netbook sales to contribute to 50 per cent of overall portable PC sales. Even though we forayed into the segment only last year, there has been tremendous growth and we hope to end the year with a 20 per cent market share," Samsung India Director (IT and Mobility) Ranjit Yadav told PTI.

All leading domestic and international vendors, such as HP, Dell, Lenovo and HCL Infosystems, have a range of netbooks in their portfolio.

According to IDC, 1.82 lakh netbook units were sold across India in CY'2009, while in Q1 of 2010 (January-March, 2010) alone, 97,000 netbooks were sold.
    
Industry experts estimate netbook sales in India will touch four lakh units (about Rs 840 crore) in 2010.
    
"We have a total of nine netbooks. We plan to enhance our line-up to 12-13 models by the end of the year across different price points, which will also include 3G-enabled netbook models (by September-October this year)," Yadav said.
    
Netbooks (sometimes also called mini-notebooks) are small, lightweight laptop computers suited for general computing and accessing web-based applications. Since they are priced lower than traditional notebooks, the devices have caught the fancy of students and young executives.
    
Samsung is also strengthening its distribution system in the country. "Apart from multi-brand stores and large retail chains like Croma, we will also focus on building our IT brand stores in the country," Yadav said.
    
Samsung currently has two IT brand shops in Delhi and Chandigarh through the franchise route. It plans to expand to five more cities this year, including Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata and Pune.