Dell sees India as export hub; sees huge potential

Betting big on India, global PC maker Dell on Tuesday said it has taken the first lead in putting India on the map of branded computer exporting nations.

After calling on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Michael Dell, CEO of the $53-billion company said, "Our India business is growing 100 per cent. We are growing faster than the market, which is growing less than 100 per cent. We see enormous opportunities of growth in India."

India presents a huge opportunity for PC makers as the computer penetration in the country is low.

The CEO the Texas-based company also said the demand for computers and servers is picking up with recession being overcome and with the enhancement of Dell's service capabilities following its acquisition of Perot Systems, which it acquired last year for $3.9 billion.

"Demand for (software) services is high. . .  we do not have to look for customers. We are on path to create more verticals. . . . We can go after infrastructure management. We look at that service which is scalable," Dell said.

Dell India MD and GM Sameer Garde said his company has taken the first lead in exporting branded computers by shipping PCs manufactured at its plant in Sriperumbudur (Tamil Nadu) to Dubai. The Sriperumbudur plant produces about 800,000 computers a year.

Though efforts were made in the past by some to export PCs, not much headway was made. Dell's is the first attempt to ship branded PCs out of India.

China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore and Korea are leading computer exporters.

Dell is the market leader in India in notebooks. Overall, along with desktops, it has a 13.6 per cent market share and is number two, behind HP, in terms of number of units sold Claiming that the company has 13 per cent market share in India, Garde said over the last two years Dell's presence has grown rapidly to become the number two player.

Garde also claimed that Dell has become the Number 1 player in the Indian notebook market, with a market share of 26.3 per cent now, up from 22.2 per cent in Q3 2009.

"India contributes two per cent of Dell's global revenues and has an annual run rate revenue of $1 billion, which means every quarter the company has a little over $250 million revenue," Garde said.

Dell's India operations, with 23,000 employees, house one-fourth of the company's total global staff strength-- comprising its hardware and services business as well as the employees of US-based Perot Systems.

Dell Computers makes laptops, desktops and servers. It is expanding operations in the country in a bid to grab more customers in the large and small enterprises segment.

Dell's total revenue in the quarter ended January 29 was $14.9 billion, 11 per cent increase from a year ago period. Revenue improved in all of Dell's business segments as the company consolidated results from the former Perot Systems for the first time.

Dell sees India as a vital part of it global strategy, identifying it as among the key emerging markets along with the other BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) countries. The major verticals contributing to this growth were the SMB and Consumer businesses.