By Rajesh Goenka, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Rashi Peripherals
Mini PCs are rapidly emerging as the cost-effective computing solution for business needs across the industry domain. It is said that compact is convenient and the same is rightfully applied to the booming business of Mini PCs in India. While the IDC report shows continued demand for traditional desktops, Mini PCs are witnessing a consistent rise in the demand across the industry domain. Small form factors PCs are gaining traction in the market as the cost-effective compute solution for companies and are set to witness large-scale adoption in the coming years.
All time high demand
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is the major advantage Mini PCs offer over traditional desktops, hence becoming popular in the Corporate sector. As the name suggests, Mini PCs save on a lot of space and power consumption, which drastically brings down the overhead cost of maintaining the system. Hence, industries, who want to keep their IT expenditure in check, prefer Mini PCs. Industries such as Education, and Healthcare are the biggest buyers of Mini PCs. Similarly, industries which run fixed internet-based applications such as Digital Signage or Digital displays are other potential buyers of such solutions. The rising awareness about the utility of Mini PCs is also boosting the demand across the industry verticals. Thus, prominent IT vendors have come up with a wide range of Mini PCs to address the rising demand for the small form factor solutions.
Constraints in Adoption
Mini PCs offer several advantages in terms of cost-benefit and usability. That said, the business has not yet picked up to its fullest in the country. While entry-level Mini PCs are quite popular for its cost advantage, Mini PCs built for superior performance are comparatively costly. Hence, users tend to opt for Desktops that goes closer to high-end Mini PCs in terms of configuration and also offers cost saving. Another major challenge with Mini PCs is a technical limitation due to form factor. Mini PCs sometimes disappoint users due to ventilation issue and seamless computing with different Windows-based applications. Therefore, home users give preference to traditional desktops over Mini PCs. However, there is a steady uptake in the adoption of entry-level Mini PCs, which is triggering the demand for high-end Mini PCs for better high-end computing.
Scope of Business
While the Desktop business is experiencing several highs and lows, Mini PCs seems to be a rising business for PC vendors. The market is huge and there are many untapped areas where Mini PCs can be positioned effectively. Therefore, leading PC vendors such as Intel, ECS, and Asus are betting big on this business. Intel NUC, ECS LIVA, Asus MiniVivo PC and Mini Stick PC etc. are few of the popular models that have already created a lot of buzz in the market and are expected to trigger more demand in the coming days.
