Lucrative laptops

HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE

KATHMANDU: With every other product in the country offering a spate of schemes and gifts for the festive season, branded laptops have also joined the fray. Authorised dealers are luring customers to stores by promoting their products through attractive schemes.

Neoteric (Nepal) Pvt Ltd, the authorised dealer for Dell laptops in the country, has come up with ‘Buy and Fly’ scheme for its laptops. Pawan Pradhan, product manager

of the company, says, “Our scheme this year is not only innovative but also exciting. As festivals are the best time for us to increase sales, we are providing the products

at reasonable rates, although the price is increasing in the West.” According to him, this festive season, the company offers customers a chance to fly to Bangkok or win from a range of exciting free gifts such as Kingston 8GB pendrive and Targus bag. The winners of Dell’s lucky draw scheme will win Bangkok holiday trip for two, Windows 8 tablet, 32 inch LCD TV and Logitech home theatre speakers respectively.

Another company looking out to cash in on the celebrations is Kasthamandap Asia International, which recently gained authorised distributorship of Toshiba laptops. Niraj Ratna Tuladhar, senior general manager of the company, says, “We plan to sell around 350 Toshiba laptops during this season, and have been providing discount of about five per cent in on each of its laptops. This discount, which started before Dashain, ends after Tihar.”

Student Jaya Shrestha, busy shopping at Computer Bazaar of Putalisadak, says, “I am aware of Acer and Dell offering various schemes, but I would rather invest in a product that offers value for money, so that I do not regret in future. However, I haven’t yet made a decision on a laptop, I’m searching for one that will not let me down during long hours of load shedding.”

Meanwhile, Mercantile

Office Systems Pvt Ltd, authorised dealer of Acer laptops, is offering ‘Yo Dashain Kharcha Hoina Lagani Garau’, which will end after Tihar. Raj Prajapati, assistant manager of sales and marketing of the company, says, “Under this scheme, we are offering discounts of up to 12 per cent on laptops according to the model.

We also offer customers pendrive and antivirus depending on the model, while retailers are offering gifts like mouse and keyboard.”

Another player in the laptop market is CAS Trading House Pvt Ltd, authorised dealer of HP laptops in the country. Amar Shrestha, sales executive of the company,

informs, “We plan to sell four to five units of HP laptops in NB series each day till the end of Tihar. Although we do not have any special scheme this year, we plan to provide discount from Rs 5,000 to Rs 7,000 on the models.”

According to him, they also have plans to import high quality models that offer

value for money.

Similarly, Sagar Group of Companies, the authorised dealer of Hasee laptop, is keen to attract customers during the festive season.

Basudev Lakhey, managing director of the company, says, “This year, we are gifting a micro laptop on the purchase of Hasee Core i3 laptop costing Rs 54,000. If customers wish to purchase laptop without the gift, then they can buy it at subsidised rate of Rs 45,000.” According to him, the company sold around 400 units of the laptop last year, and plans to increase the sales by 25 per cent this year. The company is also providing discounts of 10 to 15 per cent on its other laptops.

At the end of the day, this festive competition between laptop brands is benefiting both customers and authorised dealers.

Kitchen deadly for iPhones

SAN FRANSISCO: Where exactly do most people accidentally ruin their iPhone? If you guessed the toilet you would be wrong, says a new survey.

According to device warranty provider SquareTrade, most people — 21 per cent to be

precise — damaged their device in the kitchen. The runner up, at 18 per cent, is

the living room, followed by the bathroom at 16 per cent.

All in all, 51 per cent of iPhone accidents happen inside the house, says Squaretrade. To find that out, the company tapped Survey Sampling International and asked 35 questions to 2,004 iPhone owners in August. Other findings from the survey include that water is overwhelmingly the most common when it comes to liquid damage at 43 per cent, followed by soda at 19 per cent, and beer and coffee or tea — both came in at 12 per cent.

The results follow a similar study published by SquareTrade last month that claimed Americans alone have spent USD 5.9 billion on damaged iPhones. That same survey

noted that the main reason phones became damaged in the first place was falling out

of users’ hands (at 30 per cent of issues), followed by liquid damage at 18 per cent. —