Laptops as freebies

Laptop has been the latest buzzword attracting both votes and business. Years ago someone carrying a rectangle-shaped black bag across his chest would be an odd-man-out in a crowd. It was the time when the so called ‘mobile-computer' or ‘mini-computer' was new to the society. However, years later, it has become a yet another gadget with almost every individual sporting a laptop. This trend apart in recent years, governments and private bodies have started issuing free laptops for employees and students. The channel community across the country have thrown various lights towards the issue.

LAPTOP AS A FREEBEE
Various governments in the country are providing laptops either price-free or interest-free for the students as well as teachers. With e-governance being one of the key strength holds of all the state governments, prime steps taken by the governments were providing laptops to the employees and students in the schools and colleges. On the other hand, private colleges, especially B-schools in the country, have started the trend of providing free laptops to all the students enrolling in that academic year. In today's scenario, almost all the private B-schools and T-schools give free laptops to the students. Corporate multi-national companies (MNCs), needless to say, ‘present' their employees with a laptop.

Yathindra Nath P, who was initially with a vendor firm dealing with the channels, and who has now turned a private consultant-cum retailer says that providing laptop is the best way to reduce the mal-practices. "Governments are keen to provide laptops so that it will help in accessibility. Even if the user is an illiterate, he/she will sell it in the market. Apart from that misusing the government-provided systems are very microscopic," Yathindra Nath said. He also said that people who are educated, but do not know to use it will be forced to learn quickly if a laptop is provided. He also said that by issuing free-laptops governments have helped the vendors to a great extent.

FREE LAPTOP SCHEME IN TAMIL NADU
It has been more than a year that All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) has assumed office in Tamil Nadu. And keeping in tune with one of its election promises, the Jayalalitha government, through Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT), has floated tenders and has been distributing free laptops to the students in schools and colleges across the state. The Tamil Nadu government has also distributed laptops, printers and computer-training guides to all the Village Administrative Officers (VAO). No wonder, the initiative has been welcomed by the locals, especially the young generation, it has also received a mixed response from the channel community. While few say that the move has proved to be a threat for them, some channel partners feel that business has not been impacted since the laptops do not come with high-end configurations and have been distributed only to the education sector.

Senthil Nathan, CEO, Premier Systems, Madurai says, "The impact is very huge and the computer retail is suffering much with the distribution of free laptops," he said adding, that there have been no inquiries for entry level laptops. C Arumugam, CEO, Intech Computers, Vellore, too felt that the inquiries for entry-level laptops have gone down. However, R Gnanasivan, CEO, Agni Microtech, Coimbatore, while talking to DQ Channels, said, "We are yet to feel the wrath. Laptops are not given in mass numbers. They are been distributed in various phases in different regions. We have to wait and see what is going to happen." B Kuberan, president, Confederation of Information Technology Associations (Confed-ITA) and CEO, VBK Computers, Trichy, said, "There is a dull scenario everywhere and truth is that many partners think this is a reason for that. Only by giving laptops for free, the industry cannot suffer. In fact, seeing in longer terms, it may help the industry grow further." Kuberan, however, added that the laptops should not be sold by the beneficiaries.

PROMISE FROM TIPU
The young Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav, who is fondly called as Tippu among the political circle has too promised a free laptop for students. The announcement from the newly-elected chief minister of distributing free laptops to the 10th and 12th students has drastically hit the sales of the local dealers, by up to 40%. Therefore, the challenge for the new team is to create a momentum among the partners by building strong relationship with the vendors and distributors. Rajan Singh, the newly elected president, ACDWA, said, "We have to overcome several challenges, which our association has been confronting for last 4 months, essentially, due to a fall in sales from the end-customers side. The news of free laptops and tablets distribution has completely frozen the sales from students, who are the main buyers for the IT products. Most of the students are waiting to get free laptops, and therefore we are concerned for our dealers margins and dropping sales."

Recently, the association held an installation ceremony for the new team members, where it highlighted its key issues to the state level Uttar Pradesh Computer Dealers Association (UPCDA). With the intervention of UPCDA, the association has sent a written letter to the government, in which it described how the free distribution campaign will kill their local dealers business.

Singh further added, "Under the free laptop distribution campaign, government has planned to distribute 25 lakh units per year and the overall term is for the next 5 years. Although it is a novel scheme and it will push the overall IT penetration. But, having said that, this may lead to further price under-cutting. Therefore we want the government to create a mechanism where the end-customers doesn't resale the product in the open market. Otherwise this will spoil our entire channel market."

MOTOR CYCLE MAN PROMISES LAPTOP
Puducherry Chief Minister N Rangasamy has announced grant of free laptops to scheduled castes students pursuing BE, B Tech, M Tech or MCA courses in government run or privately managed professional colleges. He said that the students would be eligible for the free laptops only when they have joined the colleges under government quota after selection by the Centralised Admission Committee (CENTAC). The scheme has been brought into force from 2011-2012 academic year and students should be natives of Puducherry either by birth or by continuous residence for a period of not less than 5 years. It is also said the annual parental income should not exceed Rs 2 lakh. The purpose of providing free laptops to underprivileged section of students is to assist them in doing their professional courses without any hitch.

DAYS AHEAD
Even though many governments and private bodies have interested voters and their stake holders with free-laptops, sales figures from the channels are predominantly increasing. Even though the central government has come up with low-rated tablets, the young generation always have a question in their mind, "What is the next model?"