It seems the sluggish business of IT vendors in the JAS quarter has taken a turnaround for the better in the ensuing quarter. With the onset of November, some of the vendors have already reported to have overachieved their targets. This is particularly true in the case of vendors of lifestyle products. These companies rely for their success on the aggressive buying plans of the home segment. And, the projection is that buying by the home segment will spurt in the OND quarter.
The growth of the home segment has actually thrown up a large number of market opportunities for the solution providers also. And, the vendors have already chalked out a strategy to capitalize on these opportunities. The case in point is Microsoft’s announcement of Prepaid Office 2007 edition. This will not only commoditize a business application, but also solves the grave problem of piracy and counterfeit for a decade.
The prepaid strategy is clearly targeted at the home segment, which wants uninterrupted computing at a better price point. As per the strategy, the users who buy office ready PCs can buy these products at Rs.1,499/- with a validity of six months. After the expiry of the period, they can also renew it for another 3 or 6 months. Microsoft has also to evolved a strategy, whereby the existing users of the Operating System and Office Software can avail of this opportunity. This can really solve a lot of problems in terms of piracy. Though Windows Vista comes loaded with new PCs and is also available at various price points, the users do not seem to be comfortable with this OS. So, Microsoft should think of making this more user-friendly in order to be successful.
Software as a Service (SaaS) is another trend. If it becomes more transparent, it can really be used even by the home and SoHo customers. The vendors like salesforce.com, jamcracker.com, etc. should undertake the responsibility of taking this concept closer to the users of the technology. The home customers are gradually adopting more and more technology for their personal utilities and at the same time they do not like paying a high price for products. One can just look at the success of the banking and finance sector.
I might sound optimistic, but probably this is going to be the market trend. Happy reading the magazine!
Sanjay Mohapatra
Editor
