Will venture into the printers segment and launch new smartphone models to cement its position
After gaining a considerable market share in the personal computer (desktop and notebook) segment, Dell is now ready to showcase its new product line.
This year, Dell will launch new smartphone models and venture into the printers segment to cement its position as a hardware company in India.
While the company believes that the biggest growth driver in 2011 will be smartphones, it is also eyeing the enterprise and small business segment with the launch of eight new printers. The recently concluded Consumer Electronics Show (CES) saw Dell announcing a host of products in the smartphones category with Venue and Streak 7 tablet. The Venue will run Google’s Android OS but will have the Dell Stage user interface overlay (that debuted recently on the Streak).
“We have three handsets in the market — Dell Streak and two models in the XCD series,” said P Krishnakumar, director (marketing) Dell India. The company is expected to announce new handset models in the next couple of months.
Dell is confident that its line of mobile handsets will attract the Indian user. “We will expand our handset offering and besides the Android OS, we will look to offer consumers options in OSes,” said Krishnakumar. At present, Dell handsets are priced between Rs 10,000 and Rs 30,000, but the company is focusing on bringing the prices down between Rs 10,000 and Rs 20,000. “We think Dell can play effectively in the price bands that are above 10k.”
The focus on the Indian market is but obvious, as the region has been doing well for the company in the PC segment. Dell India has already crossed the $1 billion revenue mark in 2009. According to IDC data for the third quarter of 2010 (July-September), Dell led the overall PC (desktop and notebooks) market share with 16.7 per cent. This time, it also emerged number one in the desktop segment. Beating HP that had so far dominated the Indian PC market.
But focusing on the mobile and printer segments is going to be a different story. For one, the mobile segment in India is too fragmented with too many players playing the pricing game.
The company which launched Dell Streak, a touch-based tablet with full phone features, in October 2010, does not want to give details about the sales figures, as yet. Unlike many of the new entrants in the Indian mobile handset segment, Dell wants to cater only to the smartphone category. This segment, though, makes up for just one per cent of the total handset market, is growing the fastest.
Analysts, however, expressed scepticism on Dell’s handset portfolio. “It’s not about how many devices they will launch but how many compelling devices they can bring - case in point is Apple iPhone that is a singular product from Apple,” reasons Anshul Gupta, telecom analyst, Gartner. He said Dell as a handset vendor is yet to clock significant sales in India, “They have just two handsets in the affordable handset segment while Dell Streak is more like a high-end tablet PC.”
Dell India’s retail head Sanjay Yadav said the company will expand its retail presence as it increases its offering in this segment. “With 25 per cent of sales coming from online channels, we are focused to grow our distribution online - for consumer and enterprise products.” From a marketing and reach perspective, Dell offering new products in the consumer segment would only mean leveraging its existing ecosystem. The company in total has presence through over 5,000 outlets. This includes 38 exclusive Dell retail outlets.
While its mobile offerings will target the consumer segment, Dell is targeting the small, medium and small enterprises (SME) with its printers. The company had earlier reported that its India revenue grew about 55 per cent in the third quarter, led by growth in consumer, small and medium enterprises and large enterprise businesses.
In this segment, Dell will have to compete with Canon that has emerged as the No 1 vendor in the second quarter of 2010 with 28 per cent market share.
“We are primarily IT service providers to thousands of small businesses and SOHOs and our printers will complete the offering in the enterprise ecosystem,” said Yadav. The company is expected to add a few more multi-function printer models for enterprises later this year but did not share its plans to launch printers for the consumer segment.
The printers will be priced in the range of Rs 6,000 to Rs 30,000 and will be launched across India by the month-end.
The combined printer, copier and multifunctional product (MFP) market in India totalled nearly 0.8 million units in the second quarter of 2010, growing 39.9 per cent over the second quarter of 2009, according to Gartner. To gain a market share in the printer segment, Dell will be strengthening its channel distribution too.
