Thin client vendor, US-based Neoware Systems, with its partnership with Parrus IT Solutions sees greater opportunities for thin-clients in India.
The company, which started its operations in India in May this year, has also entered the Chinese market three weeks ago by acquiring a company there.
A thin client is a user's computer that performs no application processing. It functions like an input/output terminal, processing only keyboard and mouse input and screen output, and all application processing is done in the server.
It is called thin client because a typical PC network requires more specialised devices and layers of software to function that observers began referring to the typical business PC as a "fat client".
Michael Kantrowitz, chairman and CEO, Neoware said that the company sees greater opportunities for thin clients in India and that is one of the reasons for the company to start its operations in India even before it entered China.
"It is the right time for thin client companies to enter the market in India because the infrastructure required for thin clients are already in place and networks are widely available," he said.
He added that security, cost and manageability would be the primary market drivers. Thin clients provide more security of data because there is no storage device in this and every data is stored in the server, thus reducing the risk of virus attacks.
This also means that the use of thin-clients will boost the sales of servers especially, the volume servers. Here, Neoware has a tie up with the IBM, where in IBM will do the implementation of the thin clients along with their servers .
Kantrowitz added that the key feature of their thin-clients is that "Microsoft supports the thin-clients." Earlier, Oracle and Sun Microsystems promoted thin-clients to compete with the Microsoft PCs.
Priced below Rs 10,000, the company expects more volume sales as the thin-clients cannot be used as personal computers but can occupy its space in the key verticals of ITeS and education.
Sowinder Singh, director, Parrus IT solutions said that the company in collaboration with Neoware has also come out with a thin-client software that aims to simplify thin-client deployment and give new life to old and obsolete PCs, by converting them into thin-clients.
The client-side operating system is a "small embedded Linux operating system on a flash memory", thus making it a thin-client on chip.
Neoware has among its clients in India, ICICI OneSource, Tally, Cipla, WeP Peripherals and educational institutions like IIIT-B. Its global clients include Air France, Air Canada and France Telecom, which has deployed almost 50,000 Neoware thin-clients.
The company has a topline of $110 million and has joint development centre for thin-client software in Noida. According to a projection by IDC, which started tracking thin-clients markets recently, the Asian markets for the clients is increasing rapidly.
The shipment of thin-clients to Asia in Q3 05 is 47 per cent of the total production compared to 25 per cent to US and 39 per cent to Europe. The company also launched two products - Neoware C50 and Neoware E370.
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