Lakhotia launches Rs 9,999 PC

As part of its strategic diversification plan, Lakhotia Computer Centre

(LCC) has forayed into personal computer (PC) business with its maiden launch of a range of personal computers in the Orissa market. With the high growth in the PC market, the company wants to cash on it and has accordingly launched PC at a price of Rs.9999 only.

The new PC incorporates Cyrix 1000 processor, 40 GB harddisk,128 MB RAM, multi-media key board and linux operating system among others. The company has set a target of 30,000-40,000 PC sales and a sales turnover of about Rs 40 crore during next one year.

It is aiming for a national footprint. "We intend to be a national player and will launch our products in other states soon", Sidharta Lakhotia, Director and CEO, LCC Infotech said.

The company also launched a range of PCs including Intel based celeron, PIV, Dual core and Core 2 duo PC targeted at middle and higher income people.

The PC will allow many families to own a PC as it will suit their budget, he added.

Stating that PC sales have doubled during last three years, Lakhotia said that only during the last fiscal 2.2 crore branded PCs were sold in the country. PC penetration in the country being only 0.05 percent, it offered excellent opportunity for growth, he pointed out. The company is heavily banking on competitive pricing, assured product quality and good after sales service to push its sale. Apart from masses it will focus on the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the government sector to drive growth. As a matter of strategy LCC Infotech will concentrate on the B, C and D category cities across the country.

In a bid to cater to the requirement of the upper segment of the people, the company also announced to its plan to launch laptops in next two months. The increased sale of laptops has encouraged the company to expand its portfolio to laptops. While laptop sales accounted for 6.1 percent of the total PC sales in 2004-05, it increased to 12.2 percent in 2005-06. Last fiscal it further increased to 20 percent.

Laptop is catching on with the upper income segment and this market is growing very fast.

Keeping that in mind, the company is eyeing a share in the national laptop market.

"With growing demand for laptops we plan to launch our own range of laptops in next sixty days. This will be priced very competitively and will include a laptop for the masses", he said.

The price of the proposed range of laptops is expected to start from about Rs.20,000. LCC through its network of 30 centres in Orissa plans to reach out to the masses. It has already appointed two distributors in the state while each district will be under the direct supervision of a company hardware engineer available in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Sambalpur, he said.