“Sometimes…looks are tooo deceptive…”
The question of purchasing, a grey market product or a product which is well known brand in the market is definitely a tricky one. It’s been ages and there are few who still thinks IBM is a not a brand but a product itself, it’s like, “Thanda.matlab…CocaCola…”.
Instead, beating round the bush, lets get to the point straight away, which is a better bet as; I am assuming that the comparison is for home segment and not corporate segment. Because, there is a vast difference when it is comes to buying a PC for your office or for your personal use.
Branded Machines…
When, we talk about branded machines we have very few companies targeting exclusive to home segment. Most of their focus is definitely on bulk selling. Hence we have to understand the Brand first.
As we are talking about India, we have 2 types of Brand’s
MNC Brand.
Indian Brand.
MNC Brand…
MNC brand basically constitutes of IBM, DELL, COMPAQ, HP & IMAC. No doubt, I have not seen lot of people going in for Imac, though it’s a beautiful machine.
Quality
When we talk about quality, no questions can be asked about these MNC brandsIt’s definitely class apart and no assembled machines can match its quality. The parts used in these machines are mostly their own make but most of them use other manufacturer’s product. For E.g Dell uses in some machines Samsung HDD. But, still I don’t know how come the product is of top quality. But somehow they manage to give you the best quality. Rating: 8
Looks are deceptive…
Yes, definitely if you are looking for good looks for your machines then, MNC machines do have an upper hand. HP Pavilion is a beauty, but it’s one of the worst machine I have ever worked in my life. Rating : 8
Availability…
There is a big question mark as far as availability of the product is concerned. Only very few brands like DELL and Compaq has easy availability. But again delivery is of major question. Dell takes around 15 to 20 days of delivery. Compaq has tied up with lot of small showrooms, who sell their Presario range of machines. Again, the delivery always takes more than a week for any branded machines, as most of the machines come from Malayasia. Rating: 5
After Sales Service…
If you are a home user than, it’s next to hell, because if anything goes wrong then you will find yourself waiting for days and the engineers will never reach your place on time. There are also many technical hitches to these machines, like if there is something wrong with your Operating System, then you can only use their recovery CD, which sometimes is of no use. If there is new version of the OS, then you have to call up these guys because the driver files for other hardware like Sound Card, modem is very difficult to get. Rating: 5
Price…
This is a war of MNC’s, they fight between themselves, but if you ask me, Compaq and HP are the cheapest brand as far as MNC brand is concerned. Dell & Imac are very difficult to comprehend as far as price is concerned. Rating: 4
Conclusion
If you are not worried of price and after sales service then MNC brands is definitely a better bet, especially, DELL. Don’t even think of HP pavilion because it’s the worst MNC machine.(Check my review on HP Pavilion).
Indian Brand…
This is for the name sake Indian brand, but there are not but assembled machines given it to you with their brand name. Wipro, HCL, PCS, Zenith are some of the Indian brand moving around, but don’t even think of them because they are nothing but assembled machines.
Instead of Describing, let me give you my personal ratings…
Quality : 5
Availability : 7 (They have tied up with most of the local assemblers(LA).)
After Sales Ser: 7 (They have again tied up with LA for Support.)
Price : 6
(Higher then LA but less then MNC)
Rating : 5
Conclusion
Don’t even think of buying these products; instead go in for the local assemblers, who will give you better support if you are buying from his stable.
END OF RICH WARLODS
Local or Assembled Brands…
Again, here we have 2 assemblers; firstly the local assemblers who has branded his machines, and secondly new kid on the block assemblers, who are selling their machines through friends, relatives and others. They don’t have a proper shop, but assemble them at their place itself.
Assembled machines have lots of advantages, if you are a home user.
Price : Price is a very important factor when it comes to assembled machines because they bring various parts from the grey market, which are nothing but imported from Singapore. Hence, you would get an assembled P4 machines for less then 35000(700$), with a multimedia kit and including a HP 640c DJ printer. Rating: 9
Quality Quality can be a mark of question, but if you are smart enough and you sit at the assemblers place and see what hardware is installed then definitely you can see that he is not cheating on you. As I said most of these products come from Singapore hence they can be duplicate ones. No doubt it will be very difficult to identify the real one. But if you are really lucky then you might get a good one. Rating : 6
As far as looks are concerned now days, the local assemblers are getting really some cool looking cabinets. Hence, looks should not be a problem.
After Sales Service this is again one area, where the local assemblers score more points. As they are really near to you, it’s easy for you to catch hold of them and even if there is something wrong with the parts, they would replace it immediately hence you don’t loose lot of time. Rating: 9
Just some, tips for our MS members
Monitor :Samsung or Sony(don’t go for LG)
Processor :Intel P4 /AMD
Mother board :Original Intel MB(Be very particular
with your LA)
HDD(Hard Disk) :Samsung /Seagate
FDD(Floppy Drive):Samsung/Sony
Multimedia Kit :Creative Sound Card
Creative Speakers/Microtek Speakers
Modem :External US Robotic(bit expensive but
the best)
Motorola / Dlink(Don’t go for
Internal Modems, in the long run will
give you problems)
Mouse : Logitech(With Scroller)
Keyboard : Samsung / or any Multimedia Keyboard
Overall
If you ask me, as a home user, one should go ahead with the local assemblers, because you have advantages in the areas of Price, After Sales Service. Quality also can be monitored as they do make immediate replacement. Believe me you won’t have time to run behind the MNC brand if something goes wrong, also every time they visit you, they would charge some fees. Hence, overall at the end your machines cost doubles and in that price you could have brought another machine for your sister or brother.
'FELLOWSHIP OF PCS - HOME SEGMENT.'
'LOCAL ASSEMBLERS.'
©Asyis …2002
