Computer fair comes to an end
The country’s biggest IT showcase — BCS ICT World 2010 — ended in Dhaka yesterday, with the local market witnessing a shift towards mid-range personal computers.
Better configuration, rather than the price range, became the determining factor in laptop sales during this year’s gala event. Top vendors hailed this change as a significant uplift in consumer behaviour within the local IT market.
The Intel Corei3 and Corei5 laptops were top choices among prospective computer buyers, as hi-tech enthusiasts bank on the latest range of microprocessors to ensure speed and an efficient computing experience.
“Surely, the Core i series is the hottest deal now,” said Shafiul Alam Shohag of Computer Source, a leading IT vendor that showcased a range of HP, Dell and Apple notebooks at the event.
“People don’t look for prices any more; they look for superior performance. And if they cannot afford the highest range, they opt for the mid range varieties,” said Shohag.
“For example, in case of HP notebooks, the most coveted models are the HP Compaq CQ42-168TU, Probook 4420s and HP Pavillion DV6-3016TX, most of which are priced between Tk 45,000 to Tk 60,000, but quite essentially, they feature Corei5 or i3.”
“Credit also goes to Intel’s aggressive marketing worldwide for promoting its i series, which made the i core processors the most obvious choice for the tech savvies,” said Salauddin Mohammad Addel of Flora Ltd.
“The Core i logo was everywhere — on billboards, cable TV channel advertisements. As a result, even those who work with the simplest of operations, they know and opt for the Core i series,” he added.
Apart from the shift towards the higher priced varieties, top retailers observed a relative decline in the popularity of the ultra portable netbooks, which took the local computer market up by storm a couple of years back.
“This is because local buyers are now more cautious about getting optimised performance from their personal computers, instead of just portability and light weight,” said a vendor.
A wide range of printers, scanners, optical hard drives, motherboards and other IT accessories, including an exclusive range of sound systems, are other major attractions at the fair.
Beginning Saturday, the four-day annual event drew in huge crowds, especially from the younger segment of customers. Organisers termed the event a major success.
Vendors reported a boom in sales during this year’s fair, as officials at some of the big stalls and pavilions said that they sold 50 laptops on average a day.
“This year’s IT event, if nothing else, proves one thing. That is — our local consumers are now more inclined to adopting the latest technology despite their limited income capacity,” said Mustafa Jabbar, president of Bangladesh Computer Samity, the national organisation of IT companies.
“Especially, our younger generation — they are not ready to compromise on quality for quantity, when it comes to technology.”
