Patan partners concerned over declining desktop market

Customers’ growing preference to smartphones and tablets and growing inclination towards e-shopping has taken away the substantial business share of offline desktops and laptops resellers and the partners are struggling hard to sustain in the business. Resellers have demanded the government to facilitate the industrial growth in Patan steps to boost the demand for IT.

“Earlier we had around 70 percent market share in desktop and laptop business in Patan. Today it has decreased substantially. Smartphones and tablets are replacing desktops as most people now use smartphones for official use. This has resulted in major loss for us in desktop business”, said Hiren Raval, owner of Alcon Computers.

Raval said that as per the estimate around 8-9 laptops and around 250 mobile phones are sold online daily in Patan. He said that due to decreased demand for desktops and laptops, the demand for peripherals was also going down in the city.

“Smartphones and tablets are not only replacing the desktops, but it has also decreased the demand for IT peripherals like mouse and keyboard. Therefore, we are experiencing de growth in the peripheral business as well”, Raval said.

Pratik  Shah, who runs retail shop, said that vendors were not keen to come to Patan and there are very limited marketing programs in the city. “No vendor is keen to come into the city and organize road shows as they do in other cities in Gujarat. Brands do not have their exclusive showrooms and service centers and NDs do not have their warehouses in Patan. We do not get the benefits of their schemes and offers”, Shah said.

He also said that local players have a very limited scope to participate in government tenders and big players from Ahmadabad take away government tenders in Patan.

Situated in western Gujarat, Patan is a major tourist hub. It is very strategic due to its proximity to the international border. Patan is a major medical and educational hub and several prestigious educational and medical institutes are situated here.  However, the industrial growth is sluggish in the region as no major industries have their presence in Patan.

“Industrial and commercial growth will escalate the growth of IT and we hope that the market will pick up during the festive season”, Shah said.