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Indians could be buying as many laptops by 2010 on the back of dropping prices and improving usability, said a senior offical from HP. The US-based company, which replaced Dell as the world’s top computer maker last year, accounts for 21% of overall PC sales and close to 40% of notebook PC sales in India.

Mr.P.Raghuraman, Country manager, business notebooks, Hewlett Packard India Sales, said Laptop sales is fast catching up with desktop sales in the country, driven by multiple factors. Even six quarters ago, for every one laptop sold in the country, there were 19 desktops. Today it has come down to 3.5. He said that they expected laptop sales to equal desktop sales, by 2010.

Plunging cost is one of the key drivers. He said that the people could get a notebook PC for less than Rs.25000 which was not the case earlier. In developed markets such as the US and Europe already laptops sell as much desktops. In Japan, laptop outsell desktops.

Increasing demand from enterprises is another key driver. Availability of telecom connectivity and Web-based software allow employees to work from anywhere, and companies increasingly go for laptops for the productivity gains. Besides, other factors such as lower power costs and space requirements are pushing up the demand, Mr.Raghuraman said.

The notebooks market is also maturing in the country. HP’s move to segment the market into business and consumer segment is paying off, he said. While home segment demanded functions such as connectivity to entertainment devices such as television, for commercial segment ease of use, security and reliability are key, he said.

The computer maker had recently regrouped its business notebooks to four categories - standard, business, professional and workstation. According to IDC, HP was followed by HCL at 13.5% and Lenovo at 9.5%, in terms of unit shipments during FY07 in the overall PC market. In the notebook PC market HP had a market share of 39.6% in FY07 in unit shipment terms, followed by Lenovo (17.6%) and Toshiba.

Germany’s enterprise software biggie SAP AG has decided to beef up its India operations. The seven member SAP AG global board will touch down in Delhi to trash out the company’s strategy in India that will reaffirm its investment commitment and draw up a blueprint for building a world-class team at SAP India, the wholly owned subsidiary of the e10 billion SAP AG.

Confirming this, SAP India president and CEO Rajan Das, who took charge on August 15, said that his mandate from their global board was very simple. He also said building a world class India team and making SAP India and employer of choice.

He said the company plans to hire top-notch professionals to operate in key verticals like retails, public services, banking and finance services/insurance, telecoms and SMEs. Mr.Das said that they would also beef up their sales and consulting business teams.

Mr.Das declined to reveal the agenda for SAP AG’s upcoming global board meeting in Delhi. But he hinted that the board would take a call on SAP’s recent decision to pump in $1 billion in the India market between 2006-2011.

He said that there was a realisation within SAP that the company did not pay much attention to the India market in the past and needs to do much more. Prior to taking over the top job at SAP India, Mr.Das was vice-president in SAP America.

US Technology has lined up $130 million for developing new centres at Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Tier II cities in Tamil Nadu. The California based company will also increase its headcount five times to 25000 by 2010.

The company is setting up 850000 sq.ft software development centre at Thiruvananthapuram with an investment of $70 million. The first phase of this centre which can accommodate 5000 people, will be ready by the third quarter of 2008. When the project is completed, it can house 12000 software rofessionals.

In addition, the company’s Kochi centre, a SEZ, is expected to be ready by October. The facility can absorb 2000 people. It already has development centres at Thiruvananthapuram, Chennai and Bangalore.

Mr.Sajan Pillai, chief operating officer of US technology said that they were one of the pioneers in exploring Tier II cities. He said that they would continue to grow from Tier II cities and they would also spread to cities like Madurai, Salem and Erode in Tamil Nadu.

He said that the company would be spending over $130 million for the expansion in the next three years. The company, operating in verticals like retail, health care, transportation & logistics, BSFI and entertainment, is growing at 70 percent a year.