LGE eyes notebook PC unit

LG Electronics India is planning to set up an assembly line for manufacturing notebook PC in the country in an effort to corner a substantial share in the fast growing Indian market.

Sales of notebook PC is doubling every with year with the market expected to touch 160,000 pieces by 2004. LGEI intends to assemble both mid-range and high-end models in India.

Presently, LGEI imports notebook PCs and markets them. "Given the high growth, we are contemplating assembling (notebook PC) here," R Manikandan, deputy general manager (sales and marketing), IT products, LGEI said.

The mid-range models are likely to cost between Rs 45-60,000 while the high-end models will come between Rs 75-95,000.

Assembling is expected to bring down prices further and expand the market further.

A stronger pie in notebook market will enable LGEI to achieve sales of Rs 1,150 crore (Rs 11.5 billion) in 2005 from IT segment, up from Rs 760 crore (Rs 7.6 billion) in 2004.

The LGEI official pointed out that desktop PC sale was also expected to leapfrog to 200,000 in 2005 from paltry 70,000 showing growth of 150 per cent.

Compared to this, the overall market is growing only by 30 per cent.

A large portion of the sales will come from gradual increase of branded PC market from the strong assembled PC segment, which constitutes 60 per cent of total 3.8 million desktop PC market. The key players in the desktop market are HCL Technology, HP-Compaq combine.

Webel-LG pact

LGEI has approached Webel Technologies Ltd for marketing its products in various departments of government of West Bengal.

GoWB will procure LGEI products like Pro server and sell it to state government departments and offices. This is a first of its kind arrangement for the Korean major in India.

The formal agreement is expected to be signed soon.