Ast Computers Plans Wholly Owned Arm

California-based AST Computers, a wholly owned subsidiary of the $92 billion electronics and communications giant, Samsung Electronics, is planning to set up a 100 per cent subsidiary. The aim behind setting up the arm is to primarily support sales and servicing of ASTs range of products in the country.

Though there are no plans to set up manufacturing operations, the company is, however, planning to take up the final configuration testing and planning (FCTP) of the machines locally.

Explaining the concept behind FCTP, an AST executive said MNC manufacturers resort to it in order to protect their investment on vital components like microprocessor chips. For instance, between the time a consignment of computers is shipped and the time it reaches the importing country, there may be a substantial fall in chip prices.

So, companies ship the boxes without the chips, and insert the chips after the consignment has landed in the importing country, and bill the consumers based on the chip prices prevailing at that time.

This way, they can avoid losing money on chips bought earlier than the required date.

The $2.5 billion AST already has a branch office in the country, and operates out of Bangalore, and has a 12 per cent share of the market in the country.

The companys sales in India are likely to touch Rs 100 crore this year. It is targetting a revenue of Rs 150 crore in the coming year.

The entire range of AST products like notebooks, desktops, servers and monitors are available in the domestic market. AST sources said most of its components are sourced from Samsung which has one of the largest component manufacturing facilities in the world.

Samsung is relying on ASTs brand equity to make in-roads into the European and the US market for computers, having failed in its earlier attempts to penetrate these markets under its original brand name.

AST launched its latest product, the Net PC, at the IT India97/Comdex.

This product is yet to be launched commercially in the US and the European market.

ASTs Bravo Net PC will be marketed in India from January 1998. It includes the latest Intel processors from Pentium 166 Mhz with MMX technology to 233 Mhz.