Indians put value before cost when it comes to the PC: Intel

23rd October 2011
Indians put value before cost when it comes to the PC: Intel

Ocfober 24 2011: There’s life in the PC yet ( inspite of Internet-enabled phones and tablets ) – and 90 million Indian households can afford to buy one with less than a month’s income, finds a study by Intel.

India Has 100 million  Internet Users, 40 million  Mobile Internet Users – and Social Media is likely to touch 45 million users in the country by 2012, pointed out R. Ravichandran, Director Sales, Intel South Asia, in a briefing for IndiaTechOnline even as multiple PC makers including Acer and Lenovo launch their own avatars of the new ultrathin UltraBook PC form factor unveiled just weeks ago at the Intel Development Forum in San Francisco. ( see our intro video on the home page for a few days)
The Indian population on Facebook is approximately 22.24 Million ( March 2011 numbers) and is likely to grow three fold in the next five years, the Intel study says. Over the next six months 45,000 online Indians intend to join social networking sites each day.

With three million Indians graduating every year and 115 million households boasting an income of more that Rs 2,50,000 a year, cost is not a constraint. Educational advancement followed by productivity, life enhancement, entertainment and social engagement are the key motivating factors – in that order. Unlike China, Indonesia and Brazil, affordability does not loom large as a consideration. The PC for the home is clearly considered ‘paisa vasool’ or money worth!
To enhance the PC experience particularly in local languages like Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil, Marathi and Telugu as well as in English, Intel has helped create a simplified PC-Internet interface called Darpan which provides easy navigation and icons; connects to Indian websites on news, entertainment, finance etc. Darpan is aimed at the non-technical user to access Internet services in preferred language and can be installed free using a link at
http://darpan.me/darpan/home/index.html

Link to Economic Times feature on Ultrabooks in India: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/hardware/intels-ultrabook-your-next-sleek-light-and-cheaper-computer/articleshow/10470166.cms