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Desktops, notebooks & thin clients
Desktops still standing as notebook usage rises
Despite an eroding price differential between notebook PCs
and desktops, the latter remain on the top of the MB investment list although
the portion of the IT pie allocated to desktops is poised to drop. By Malabika
Sarkar.
 In
this story, we have tried to crunch some numbers related to the usage of desktops,
notebooks PCs, and thin clients in the medium business. As the figures in this
story show, notebook PCs are way behind desktops. However, that situation is
expected to change in 2008-09.
As per the survey desktop usage is 100% while notebook usage is 98% and thin
client usage is 18% across verticals.
Intercontinental Consultants and Technocrats Pvt. Ltd., has an employee strength
of about 1,200 globally with over 375 employees and 350 personal computers at
its corporate headquarters at New Delhi. Bihar Sponge Iron Ltd which has 7 offices
all over India with 600 employees has 15 PCs with only 2 or 3 notebooks PCs.
M K Retail has an employee strength of 300 with 60 PCs and all desktops except
for a solitary notebook PC. However, Caliber Construction Co Pvt Ltd., is an
exception. It has 250 employees and is currently using 50 notebooks while the
rest are desktops.
Vertical-wise, the Utilities/ Transportation/Real Estate/ Construction sector
has total usage of desktops and notebooks with adoption standing at 100% for
both categories. Thin client usage is at a slim 12%. In the manufacturing sector,
once again desktop and notebook usage is all pervasive at 100%, while thin client
usage is a tad better at 21%.
Talking about the adoption of notebooks, desktops and thin clients and what
is the primary use of it D Vasudevan, Senior Vice President and Head, Information
Technology Services, Intercontinental Consultants and Technocrats Pvt. Ltd.
said, “We have 230 desktops and around 120 notebooks being used in our
firm. We do not use any thin clients. Being an engineering design consultancy
firm, our primary use of the desktops is in Engineering Design (around 70%)
and rest of the usage is across business development, accounts, and IT, marketing
and sales, etc. Engineering design (CAD/CAM/ CAE) is handled better by desktops
rather than notebook PCs and hence the justification for the desktops.”
Across sectors, desktop usage is 100%. Notebook deployment is 100% in four verticals
with Wholesale/ Retail (92%) and BFSI (95%) being the exceptions. Thin clients
aren’t widely deployed with BFSI having the highest incidence of these
devices with 23% followed by manufacturing with 21%.
Talking about the criteria that is used to decide whether an employee needs
a laptop, Susheel Kumar Bachheti, Assistant Manager EDP, Bihar Sponge Iron Ltd
said, “Laptops are basically given to senior management or marketing people
depending upon the nature of job and how mobile they have to be in the course
of performing their duties.”
To this Vasudevan added, “We provide notebooks not only to business development
executives, but to most of our professional staff that are required to travel
to project sites both within and outside the country. Of late, we have started
providing notebook PCs to most of the Professional Staff because it gives them
the flexibility to work at home even after office hours and weekends apart from
when they are traveling; it takes less space on the office desk.” Talking
about the IT budget, “We have made an investment of Rs 50 lakhs approximately
in 2007 for both desktops and notebooks. The budget for the current year is
nearly Rs 1 Cr, which is double the budget of the previous year,” added
Vasudevan.
Future focus
The trends indicate a rise in IT budgets of MBs with roughly 63% of MBs expected
to hike their IT budgets in 2008-09. The average IT budget of an MB is likely
to rise by around 7% in 2008-09. An analysis of the ‘Rank-1’ spending
areas for ‘current’ and ‘next 12 months’ indicate that at
present desktops dominate the pie at 48%, followed by laptops (14%) and servers
(5%). However, in the next 12 months, there is an anticipated to be a shift
in trends; the share of servers and networking is projected to rise from a combined
6% to 9% while that of storage, security and enterprise applications is likely
to rise from 14% to 17% at the expense of desktops whose share will drop 48%
to 41%.
According to the survey report, 85% of the respondents said that they would
invest in desktops in 2008-09, 82% in laptops and 10% in thin clients.
Furthermore while desktops and notebooks continue to show the positive momentum,
analysis of top ranked spend areas–current and planned reveals an interesting
aspect by major technologies. The survey shows that spending on desktops will
decline from the current 48% to 41% planned. This trend is inevitable as most
of the MBs are already done with investments in basic IT infrastructure, namely
desktops. However, there will still be investments in desktops as MBs expand
their business operations. Additionally the focus would shift from desktops
to networking, servers, storage and security.
78% of the companies in the Utilities sector will invest
in desktops, 81% in laptops and 6% in thin clients in 2008-09. [Refer graph]
The percentage figures represent planned technology penetration /usage within
MBs. These numbers may add up to more than 100% since a particular respondent
may plan to invest on multiple technologies. Base = 189 |
Talking about the preference for branded or assembled computers Vasudevan said,
“As a matter of company policy, we procure only branded computers.”
On questioning as to why they insist upon branded PCs, he replied, “Branded
PCs are reliable, come with better quality, and ease of maintenance support
and warranty. The meager price difference between branded and assembled PCs
does not warrant for going in for assembled PCs anymore.” To this Bachheti
had the same answer that they used only branded computers, the reasons being
much the same. To this Rajagopalan added, “We prefer only branded computers
because of reliability. The configuration again of course depends on the user
and the applications.”
Further going to the manufacturing sector, 87% said that they would invest in
desktops; 87% in laptops and 9% would invest in thin clients. In the wholesale/
retail sector, 96% intend to invest in desktops, 79% in laptops and 8% in thin
clients.
| Desktops are always cheaper than notebooks for comparable
performance and features. In fact, they are often half the price or less.
Although part of the reason for this discrepancy is the LCD screen that
is used in notebooks. Of course, increasingly we are seeing flat panel monitors
bundled with desktops as they take up less space than conventional CRTs.
With some exceptions, new technologies show up in desktop
PCs at least six to twelve months before they make their way to notebooks.
Notebook users are always ‘behind the technology curve’ relative
to desktop users.
Due to the extreme miniaturization and difficult design,
constraints inherent in the compactness of notebooks, and the fact that
they are moved around a great deal, notebooks have been less reliable
than desktops in the past though this has been addressed to some extent
in recent years.
Most desktop PCs provide better performance than
notebook PCs in addition to being cheaper.
Desktops have far more expansion options than notebooks.
A desktop PC has expansion slots that let you add any of a variety of
thousands of hardware cards. Although most notebooks have a card slot,
you can add one card which is nothing compared to what you can with a
desktop. Some notebooks also have available docking stations that can
take one or maybe two expansion cards (at considerable expense). Still,
there is really no comparison; desktops are much more expandable.
When ordering a new notebook you will have fewer options
for customizing your configuration than you will for a desktop. Most notebook
manufacturers have a number of different standard configurations from
which you can choose, but limited options beyond that point.
Most desktop PCs have a myriad of upgrade options available
to them; more memory can be added, hard disks easily replaced, and sometimes,
even the system processor can be upgraded at low expense. A motherboard
upgrade can be a bit more expensive and difficult, but is much cheaper
than getting a completely new system while yielding many of the benefits.
In contrast, despite improvements in recent years (user-upgradeable memory
and hard disks being the most obvious) notebooks have fewer upgrade options.
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Talking about the minimum
configuration that medium businesses prefer Imtiyaz, Manager-IT, M.K Retail
said, “We prefer a minimum configuration of 1 GB RAM, 80 GB Hard Disk and
a 3 GHz Processor.” In most businesses, the configuration differs based
upon the user’s job requirement. However, the latest possible configuration
is preferred to balance the cost and performance as well as keeping a sustainable
minimum usage life cycle of three years.
Coming to the BFSI sector, 81% will invest in desktops, 90% in laptops and 10%
in thin clients. In the professional and other services sector 86% of the respondents
are planning to invest in desktops, 73% in laptops and 11% in thin clients.
Lastly, in the ITES sector, 93% will invest in desktops, 82% in laptops and
only 14% in thin clients.
Talking about the usage Rajagopalan, Director, Caliber Construction Co Pvt.
Ltd., said, “The primary use of our desktops is productivity for daily
operations like accounting, storing data, sales, presentation etc. We also provide
an Internet connection to all the PCs.” He added, “Depending upon
the user and the applications, we prefer high-end notebooks to have newer and
faster technology such as wireless connectivity, TFT screens, DVD combo drives,
data protection and security features.”
- Desktops, laptops and printers (basic
hardware items) are the top-ranked IT spend areas within the MBs surveyed.
MBs are keen to strengthen their initial robust IT infrastructure; subsequently
they are planning more advanced IT applications
- The average medium business (MB) has 266
desktops. That number is highest in IT/ITeS (403) and Professional services
(388) and lowest in Utilities (142).
- The number of PCs in a given MB rises
with its turnover. Organizations in the Rs 100-124 Cr slab have an average
of 131 PCs while those in the Rs 225+ Cr bracket have an average of
477 PCs almost four times higher.
- 80% of MBs rank desktops as a high priority
item, 65% do the same for laptops.
- Spending on desktops accounted for 48%
of overall IT expenditure in 2007-08. That’s projected to decline
to 41% in 2008-09. On the other hand spending on laptops is expected
to hold stead at 14% of overall IT spend.
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Geographical expansion to drive desktop sales
With the opening of more branch offices, all over the country, India’s
medium business has expanded in a big way, leading to a rise in their number
of new offices. With higher number of branch offices and greater number
of employees, India’s medium size businesses are experiencing immense demand
for desktop computers.
Strong purchase intentions among MBs is seen in India. While the majority are
planning a desktop PCs, over a quarter plan to purchase a notebook PC.
Intercontinental Consultants and Technocrats Pvt. Ltd. is actually planning
to distribute laptops to their employees. They are gradually shifting all their
desktops to portable notebooks. Senior Manager-IT, Navneet Khanna said, “Most
companies want their employees to be available 24x7, therefore providing them
with laptops is important. With the help of VPN, a person can work on a computer,
even if he is in a remote location.” He added, “If an employee is
working on some crucial project and needs to work over time, he can easily access
his work from home. With the cost of laptops coming down from Rs. 70,000 in
2005 to Rs.30,000 in 2007 it is convenient for the company as well as the employees.”
IBM/Lenovo, HP and Acer are the preferred brands for their future computer purchases.
Some of the key drivers for their planned PC purchase include the desire to
improve productivity and efficiency.
malabika.sarkar@expressindia.com
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