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Office PCs

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PCQ Bureau
New Update
Year Winner
2000 Assembled
1999 Compaq
1998 Compaq
1997 Compaq
1996 Wipro-Acer
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Assembled or branded? That was the hottest question coming

from decision makers and single users throughout the year. It’s a tough

question to answer, particularly because prices for branded PCs have also been

very competitive this year. Over the years, we have been seeing the local

assembler making strides towards the top of the UPI chart. Last year, it was at

number two, just 20 points behind the winner Compaq. This year, the survey has

finally highlighted that the most-preferred choice for establishments and

households combined is none other but the assembled PC.

Office PCs

User's Choice Club  UPI
Assembled 100
Wipro 53
Compaq 28
HCL 20
HP 20
IBM 20

As a locally assembled PC isn’t a brand, the winner this

year is therefore the next most preferred on the UPI charts. Wipro that was

sixth in last year’s rankings has emerged as the most preferred branded PC,

and thus the winner. Compaq, which had been the winner for the past three years,

has dropped down to the runner up position.

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Wipro drew its support mostly from the South and western

regions. Support for the brand was reported pretty low in North, so it needs

some heavy-duty marketing there. Compaq, on the other hand, drew consistent

support from across the country. Wipro and HCL showed a nearly equal installed

base followed by Compaq.

The PC segment has always been full of action, with faster

and newer processors, changing motherboard designs, etc. This year was no

different, except that some changes were significant. The MHz gave way to GHz,

marking the start of a new genre of processors. AMD was more visible this year

with its powerful Athlon processor pitted against Intel’s Pentium III, and

later it also introduced the Duron processor against Intel’s Celeron. All

these processors are available in a multitude of speeds, FSB support, causing

the motherboard design to change accordingly. Due to so much change, the life of

branded models has really become short, to the order of three months. You may

buy a model today, only to find it obsolete three months later.

The most important criterion for choosing an office PC was

not price, but quality. Given the dynamic market with new components popping up

everyday, this seems logical. The next criterion reported for choosing an office

PC was service and support.

With assembled office PCs getting the top position, and an Indian PC brand as

the next choice, it would be interesting to see what MNC brands will do. We’ll

assemble next year to tell you the results.

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