THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In every crisis there lies an opportunity. The adage is true for the leading suppliers of PC and laptops in Kerala as they are laughing all the way to the bank ever since the lockdown was announced. Kerala witnessed around 400 per cent increase in sale of laptops after the state government decided to promote work from home and online classes for students.
The market for PCs and laptops had seen a slight decline after the emergence of smartphones. But the pandemic started to increase the penetration of PCs and laptops in Kerala after a brief lull. Biju Kumar, zonal manager of Savex Technologies Pvt Ltd, one of the largest Information and Communication Technology distributors in the country, said: “we have been supplying laptops of HP and Lenovo in Kerala market.
There is a 400 per cent increase in the sale of laptops. In the case of tablets, if we used to sell around 4,000 tablets in a month before the lockdown period, now we could sell around 12,000 pieces in a month. In the smartphone segment also, the buoyancy is palpable as there is a three-fold increase in sale,” he said.
Ingram Micro and Redington, two other leading distributors in the state, also confirmed that there is a clear uptick in the market and they hope that at least for next two months, the growth momentum will be stable. On the other hand, they fear that their festival sale will not be on a par with the lockdown sale in the state. “Usually, Onam used to witness an increase in demand.
But this time, parents have bought their share much before the festival,” said a senior officer of Redington. The sale is expected to set new records as Kudumbashree and KSFE have decided to jointly launch micro chitty schemes to help parents purchase laptops for their children to attend online classes.