BANGALORE: Leading personal computer makers are attempting to win back consumer attention that has lately shifted to tablets and smartphones by betting on a new breed of devices that respond to touch.From US-headquartered Hewlett Packard and Dell to Asian majors Acer and Lenovo, top PC makers see touch-based laptops and hybrid devices that double up as tablets as a means to counter the slowing sales of desktops and laptops.
The change in tactic is also a tacit admission by these companies that emerging markets like India may not be able to throw them a lifeline in the wake of shrinking PC sales in United States and Europe. "On one side the PC market is not expanding, while on the other side more and more people are getting used to the touch interface. The question is, 'Do you want to complain or do something about it?'" P Krishnakumar, executive director and head of consumer business at Dell India, says.
In 2012, India's PC market grew at a tardy 3.5% to 11 million units from 10.5 million units in the previous year. During the same period, smartphone shipments in the country grew 48% to 16.3 million units. The Round Rock, Texas-based Dell, which counts India as one of its fastest growing markets, is now running a marketing campaign in schools in the country's smaller towns to push touch-screen laptops to students and parents. Last month, Palo Alto, California-based HP launched six new touch-responsive computers in India making it the new battleground for PC vendors.
"We expect to see a growing trend towards a multi-use environment where customers want access to multiple devices, form factors, operating systems and ecosystems," Ketan Patel, director of HP's consumer products business in India, says.
He says the Indian PC market is going through a phase of "form factor flux" where the dominant form factor of future is yet to emerge. Analysts say they expect touch-screen usage to increase in emerging markets such as India, Indonesia and Brazil where PC penetration is low and that these devices will give tablets such as Apple's iPad a run for their money even though the overall PC sales would not soar.
PC makers HP, Dell, Acer, Lenovo betting on touch-based laptops, hybrid devices to beat slowdown "Touch will bring interest back to the PC market but overall volumes will not increase but steady the decline," says Ranjit Agarwal, research director at technology research firm Gartner's global forecasting team in the UK. He says emerging markets will not have any problem in adopting touch as many users are yet to experience premium phones like an iPhone yet.
Component and chipmakers too have spotted this trend. The world's largest chipmaker Intel, which recently cut its sales outlook following weak PC sales, said the distance between devices traditionally meant for content creation (laptops/desktops) and consumption (smartphones/tablets) is blurring in markets like India. "We feel touch is at a tipping point," Ramaprasad Srinivasan, a director at Intel India, said last month. In May, Intel started a nation-wide campaign in schools to raise awareness about PCs among students, hoping to push sales.
Device makers are also particular about launching their new touch-based computers at affordable prices to make them accessible to a broader base of consumers.
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