Xenitis unveils low cost laptops

Xenitis Infotech, the city-based desktop manufacturers, today launched its low-cost laptop range branded 'Xuva' aiming to take on the MNC brands dominating the domestic market.

Xenitis, the first PC maker to break the Rs 10,000 barrier, would offer eight ranges of laptops in the price range of Rs 29,000-59,000 targeting the low-end customer segments.

"We will focus on the fast growing segment of low-cost laptops and target individual, small and the medium business sector and suburban markets, which are witnessing faster growth in laptop consumption,'' the company chairman Santanu Ghosh said.

The company, which would roll out the products from its newly set up plant at chinsurah in hoogly district, expected to sell about 10,000 laptops out of a total sale of 1.5-2 lakh units sold in the Indian market per quarter.

The lowest range of laptops, priced at Rs 29,000, would have features like Celeron mobile processor with 40 GB hard disk, DVD combo drive, in-built modem and LAN card and a 15'' screen. Speaking on the occasion, Rajesh Gupta, director - sales (channels) of Intel (south Asia), said the laptop market was expected to record huge growth worldwide in the coming years.

''Our projection is that by 2008, one out of every three PCs sold will be a laptop. The laptop segment is witnessing 100 per cent y-o-y growth in India,'' he said.

In view of the emerging trend in the PC market, Intel has intensified its research on the mobile technology and also introduced a new technology for using mobile CPUS on the desk top in India.

Echoing Ghosh, he said the local brands in the PC market were expected to dominate over the MNCs in near future.

Launching the products, the state IT minister Manab Mukherjee drew the instance of cellular phones overtaking the fixed line phones in India and said, "Laptops may also overtake the desk tops in future."

Exuding confidence in the company's ability to become the largest player in the hardware market in the long run, Ghosh said Xenitis was expected to record a turnover of Rs 650 crore in 2005-6 against Rs 178 crore registered last fiscal.