Shashi B Mal, country manager-personal computing division, IBM India spoke to Prashant L Rao about Big Blue’s PC business where it has traditionally been strong in the Enterprise and Corporate segments. He also pinpoints some key trends in the PC market

* You have been very strong in the enterprise and corporate segments. What about SME?
In 2001 we have put our focus on increasing our share in the SME and home market with specific products and customer acquisition strategies. Today IBM has products that span all segments of the market.

* A prickly question for companies is how they can justify their IT spend. Is there a clear-cut way to measure productivity gains resulting from computerisation?
These measurements are different for various organisations. For example, a bank will measure it by increase in transaction processing per day, manufacturing will measure it on saving on inventory, etc.

* How do you see the PC evolving in terms of technology in the coming years?
Firstly, security solutions for Internet transactions will play a critical role as users will try and ensure that communications on the Net, which will probably define everyday functions, are secured as far as possible.

Secondly, the power of the Internet will be better utilised to incorporate streaming audio video support. This would require even more powerful processors, high bandwidth links which should become a standard feature of the PC design and high capacity RAM.

Thirdly, if the costs of the TFT displays drop, standard monitors should also get replaced by TFT panels and this could in turn trigger a revolution for space saving all in one designs.

Fourthly, the design factor, including the styling and the colour factors, will play a very critical role.

Finally, the PC of the future will probably replace the multiple devices currently used by one at home, including entertainment devices like TV, stereo systems, etc. Parallely, the PC will also control various home devices.

* Has the ongoing slowdown resulted in a change in IBM’s market strategy?
Marketing activities remain more or less the same. We are definitely looking at newer segments in the market and are offering specific bundles to address these segments. Our channel partners have increased over a period of time and we are now looking at making our presence felt in B&C class cities and the newer market segments.