At a time, when the laptop market in India is witnessing a year-on-year decline and there is a huge demand-supply gap in the electronics hardware industry, US-based iLife Digital is planning to tap the entry-level or first-time buyers’ segment which can reverse the declining growth trend.
iLife has already captured a large part of the entry-level laptop and PC market in the Middle-east and African countries and is planning to cause a major disruption in India as well.
Speaking to Bismah Malik, iLife’s India head Anshuman Rath, who has worked at senior level positions at major manufacturing brands in Dubai, discussed the brand’s further plans for Indian market.
At a time when the market size of PCs/ laptops in India is shrinking, how is ILife brand hopeful of disrupting the segment in India?
We are tapping into the hugely growing first time buyers or entry-level users of laptops/ notebooks especially in tier 3 and 4 cities who want these products at an affordable rate. We have done the same in Middle East and Africa, where we sell a million units every year since last year, we have already sold 59,000 units in India across e-commerce platforms.
But how are you so confident of making huge sales in India when the demand has gone down?
According to market research firm, IDC, the traditional PC market in India in the first quarter of 2019 witnessed a year-on-year decline of 8.3 per cent with shipments reaching 2.15 million units.
Notebooks constituted 61.4 per cent of PC imports but witnessed a 9.8 per cent YoY decline. However, the Ultra slim category, with a 25.3 per cent share of the market, grew by 86.5 per cent.
iLife Digital has strong position on Ultra Slim Notebook category across all the regions that it operates and with the launch of our new series of affordable Ultra Slim Notebooks, we expect this category to grow further.
Also, in most of the affordability of the emerging market has been an important factor in driving growth of the PC category. Indian consumers’ bold and aspirational needs require an equally amazing product and Life Digital products will address the open space in the affordable computing category, giving customers a wider option.
Talking about affordability, what is the price range for various series of iLife products?
Our range of laptops which also include detachable, convertible ones target the millennial groups.
Our computers are powered by Intel processors whereas our tablets and notebooks come with Atom quad-core processor, Windows 10 Operating System, 2GB of system memory, 32 GB flash storage, up to 10-hour battery life and a one-year warranty. Most of the products are priced in the range of `10,000-15,000 and goes up to Rs 23,000.
So far, your sales have been only through e-commerce platforms. Any plans of setting up offline stores?
Life Digital plans to enter the General Trade Channel next year, for the same we are in the process of building a sales team and appointing channel partners across the country.