IBM looks up to govt, education sector

IBM India on Tuesday said it was relying on the government and the education sector for further growth in desktop and notebook computer sales.

The company's personal computing division vice president Alok Ohrie said: "We see demand coming mainly from government - both the Centre and the states - and the education segment for desktops and notebooks." The telecom sector will also push the desktop sales, he said.

Ohrie, however, declined to comment on the expected sales of both the segments for the current financial year.

The company is aggressively targeting the B and C class cities in the current year to expand its markets under the 'very focused business' initiative which contributed 18 per cent to the total turnover of IBM India. The company is also re-launching the Pentium iv 1.7 ghz machine in C class cities for the corporate, SOHO and SME segments.

"It was already there but when Intel migrated from 1.7ghz to 2.40 ghz, we also migrated along with them," he said.

The company has recently launched Linux-based PCs in the country.

In 2002, the company sold about a lakh desktops and 11,672 notebook computers.