IBM Corp and its joint venture partner the Tata Group, is set to relaunch its Aptiva home PC series in India, aiming at the consumer mass market. Tata IBM’s new managing director Ranjit Limaye said, IT in the household is not a topic of debate anymore. There is significant investment in this segment. We are evaluating our business model for Aptiva and will take a decision on its launch soon. Limaye,who took over recently, said PCs was a focus areas. Last year, IBM saw its products business flattening. This was because of a flat hardware business for the whole industry, he said.
Meanwhile, Intel Corp expects India’s personal computer market to grow by about 40% over the next year, beginning April, compared to the sales for last year. Despite the disappointment of the (Union) budget, I would safely say that I expect the market to grow at the same pace as in 1998-99…about 40%, Intel’s director for South Asia Atul Vijaykar said in an interview over the weekend. In the next 12 months, I expect to see the information technology culture finally seep in.
