IT Manufacturers Shift Focus to Coimbatore

The Coimbatore IT market is gaining in importance with the major manufacturers increasing their focus on the channel here targeting the home and SME segments, which offer a great deal of growth opportunity, according to the channel partners who participated in the recently held DI Yatra meet.

More than 70 channel partners attended the Coimbatore Yatra meet and enthusiastically interacted with IT majors Seagate, Sahara Computers, Logitech, Pinnacle Systems and Trend Micro who showcased their latest technology products.

According to Murthy of e-logic, "With Bangalore slowly crowding up, the MNCs are now shifting their focus to Coimbatore, which also has a pleasant climate, and establishing their branches here."

Laptops and AMD processors are much in demand in Coimbatore, the dealers informed. Amiradh Alingam of K. K. Computer Associates said, "Since the last two months especially we have seen a tremendous growth in the laptop sales. The SMEs are a major driver of IT business here."

"There is an overall increase in sales of AMD processors because of their cost and performance. Currently, HP rules the roost in laptop sales. All the manufacturers are very supportive and provide pre- and post-sales support," Alingam added.

However, some of the dealers were not happy with the distributors who, they said, do not promptly respond to their calls to help them sort out replacement issues. But schemes and incentives have been reaching them in time and the manufacturers themselves keep in touch with the channel partners, the dealers said.

Currently, AMD, Lenovo, HP, HCL and Compaq are doing good business, according to the dealers.

The channel here has a representative body called Coimbatore Computer Dealers Association (CCDA). Sentil, secretary, CCDA, said, "We hold an IT exhibition in March every year and organize meetings with our members every Friday. We also plan to soon cover the entire IT industry and not restrict only to hardware, and go in for a name change to reflect the new entity."

Source: Channel Times