About 9.3 million computing devices were sold in India in FY11, according to MAIT. While desktop sales are growing just 10%, Net book sales are growing at 100% this year. Tablet sales have really started only this financial year, and already more than 100,000 units have been sold so far. "We expect the fastest growth in the smaller devices," says Bharadwaj. HCL expects that the market shore of low cost netbooks and tablets will grow from two per cent of all PCs sold to 30%-40% of total computer sales in just a couple of years. Such devices are invariably the best selling tablet in the portfolio of any company. Samsung N100, a 12,000 net book launched on August 15, is the company's `rock star' product. About a third of the N100 sales are in small towns like Patiala and Nagpur. Ecommerce is also helping push sales of computers in smaller towns. For example, about half of the sales of online retailers come from remote locations where customers. Two problems remain. First, these devices should not only be cheap, but also useful. That means a whole bunch of locally relevant applications needs to be built in order to improve the utility of such devices. "There's an expectation that all people are literate to use a computer. Tablets will definitely add mobility, but are there relevant programs or native language applications?" quips Jesse Paul, CEO, Paul Writer, a marketing advisory firm. Paul says that unless such devices help a taxi driver make a booking it won't be too relevant for him. Or can a small merchant do accounting on it? She points out that application developers don't come from a bottom of pyramid background. Hence, they may not quite know what will work for the masses. Adds Sivakumar of ITC, which is experimenting with tablet applications for farmers: "Because of lower education levels and poor infrastructure (for mass roll out) these devices need features like multimedia, video and photo shoot and transmission, battery time and ruggedness. An eco-system that supports solutions will help in adopting computers." Education, where industry sources expect high demand for low-cost devices, will be a big testing ground. "They (low-cost tablets) will benefit only a small percentage of overall schooling in the country -- only 4-5% of 1.5 million schools," says Anurag Behar, CEO, Azim Premji Foundation. "For mass education computers are irrelevant, unaffordable and unusable." The Premji Foundation works in teacher training and developing curriculum and impacts 2.5 million children. It developed school course in 175 CDs in 15 languages between 2002 and 2007. About 25,000 schools in 10 states use this. However the foundation has discontinued converting courseware to digital formats. "The process of learning does not happen via computer but via good teachers. But computers can be great for teacher education and adult education," says Behar. Second, manufacturers earn profit margins of only 3%-4% from the computers they make. It is even lower (2-3%) for low cost devices. "Companies will need massive volumes to sustain. Only companies with nationwide sales and services play might succeed," says Vishal Tripathi, senior research analyst, Gartner India. While R&D has worked hard to get all frills computers at low costs, some of the business and user models might take longer to emerge. Mass computing may not happen in a jiffy, but users are closer to it than five years back.
Shelley Singh
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