Dell India to renew focus on small, medium business

With India housing around 7.6 million small and medium business (SMB) units and offering a good growth opportunity, computer manufacturer Dell India has realigned its focus on the sector, a senior company official said Friday.

"We have refreshed our Vostro range of laptops targeted at the SMB segment with new features. The Indian SMB hardware spend is estimated at $3.25 billion," Ravi Bharadwaj, Dell's general manager of the SMB vertical, told reporters.

The SMB segment, which saw its growth declining in 2008, is showing positive signs once again, goading Dell to target it in a more focused way.

According to Bharadwaj, the custom built laptops come with free, pre-installed video conferencing and webcam software with the purchase of integrated webcam and microphone.

Citing IT market tracker IDC's data, he said by the end of this year, nearly 35 percent of SMBs will be using some form of video conferencing.

Any company with an employee strength of up to 100 is termed small and up to 700 as medium.

Claiming a 5.5 percent market share in the SMB segment, Bharadwaj said the company sells through 180 channel partners in India apart from selling directly.

Dell India makes the Vostro Classic series at its Sriperumbudur plant near here while importing the Vostro Basic series from Malaysia.

Last updated on Jul 10^th, 2009 at 19:29 pm IST--IANS