HCl's Rs 13,900 laptop

HCL Infosystems, it seems, is trying to do to personal computers what Tata Motors’ has done to the automobiles by launching the world’s cheapest car, Nano. To tap the fast growing laptop segment in India, HCL Infosystems on Tuesday unveiled the sub-Rs 14,000 laptop, which is believed to be the cheapest portable PC available in the country so far.

The 'X' Series "MiLeap" laptops are available with both flash-based and disk-based storage. Their sturdy design makes them dust- and shock- proof. Among others, the leaptops are Wi-Fi ready, and feature network ports and an option for data card. They are available with GUI-enabled, user-friendly Linux operating system (OS).

The 'X' Series "MiLeap" laptops are priced, starting at Rs 13,990.

The other series launched by HCL, the 'Y' Series, has laptops powered by the latest Intel Ultra Mobile Platform (Intel processor A110 and Intel 945GU Express Chipset). They feature Microsoft's Vista Home Premium OS, a swivel seven touch-screen cum note pad, an 80GB HDD, wireless connectivity, data card option, Blue-tooth, and Ethernet network port, among others. These leaptops sport multiple navigation features, including touch- screen, thumboard, stylus, keyboard, mouse, and one-touch buttons.

The 'Y' Series "MiLeap" laptops are priced, starting at Rs 33,990.

Both 'X' and 'Y' Series leaptops are fully RoHS-compliant, and have a low energy footprint.

The notebook, which runs on Linux operating system, has a 7-inch LCD screen and weighs about 1 kg. HCL also launched the laptop with Windows Vista operating system at Rs 29,990. Ajai Chowdhry, chairman and CEO, HCL Infosystems, said, the device is half the price point of current similar products available in the market.

Chowdhry said just like Nano, the notebooks in the MiLeap series would create a different segment all together, which will help grow the market further. “This will herald in a new category of computing devices, opening up a wide range of new usage scenarios and application areas,” he said. The notebooks will start shipping from January 26.

Both the models have network ports, are Wi-Fi ready, have the option for data card. “In order for us to broaden the number of people who can have access to information via broadband internet we need to make the internet more affordable and accessible to a much larger number of people,” said Ramamurthy Sivakumar, managing director-sales and marketing, South Asia, Intel.

Notebooks in the sub Rs 25,000 range are already available in the market and are increasingly finding their way into homes, educational institutes, and SMEs. HP and Zenith Computers have introduced their standard notebooks at a starting price of Rs 24,990. While Dell’s notebooks are also available for as low as Rs 32,000, Acer’s laptops are also available at Rs 20,999.

Led by drop in prices and the benefit of mobility and space management, notebook sales in India are growing faster than desktop sales and are projected to corner 40% share of the India PC market by 2010. Notebook shipments have grown 86% in FY07, and today, one out of five PCs sold in India is a notebook.

The fact that every 50th Indian today owns a PC, shows there is a huge chunk of market yet to be tapped. Increased penetration of notebooks and desktops is expected to give a push to Internet usage in India, especially in the rural areas, from where the next stage of growth is expected to come.