New Delhi:HCL Frontline, the channel division of HCL Infosystems (HCL Insys), India's leading information enabling company, announced that in an apparent bid to increase its market share among the first time buyers and users in India, ranging from entrepreneurs to small and medium businesses, it has added over 200 channel partners and retailers across the country in the last six months.

As per IDC Asia Pacific Report 2002, India is the third fastest growing Notebook PC market in the ASEAN region with a CAGR of 21.9 per cent. HCL Insys, the exclusive distributor of Toshiba notebooks in India aims to dominate this market.

In an effort towards the numero uno position, besides ramping up distribution, HCL Insys is rapidly introducing to the Indian market the latest products from the leading Singapore based mobile computing solutions company, Toshiba Computer Systems Division. The most recent introduction is the all-new Protégé 2000, the world's thinnest ultraportable notebook with industry-first 1.8 inch Hard Disk Drive. Weighing just over one kg and measuring less than 15mm thin including the full size keyboard, the Protégé can be easily tucked into a briefcase and comfortably carried while moving from place to place.

Priced at Rs 1.70 lakhs (taxes extra as applicable), the 750 MHz Mobile Intel Pentium® III- M ultra low voltage processor with 12.1-inch poly silicon TFT display allows easy viewing and delivers higher quality images. The Protégé 2000 supports anytime, anywhere communication with a fully integrated 56 Kbps modem, a 10/100 Ethernet port and an optional 802.11b Wireless LAN or Bluetooth via PC card or Secure Digital ™ (SD) Card. For enhanced multimedia storage, it includes a Secure Digital media slot, which can hold a 128MB memory card with a storage capacity of about 40 minutes of video.

Announcing the launch, Mr Jyotin Verma, Country Head, Marketing HCL Frontline, said, "We are always looking to bring to our customers the latest and best technology which will fit in well with their mobile computing needs and we will back this with world class support."

HCL Infosystems Ltd, which is a recepient of the "Best Distributor award" from Toshiba Singapore Pvt. Ltd, has recently made some significant breakthroughs in this segment. It sold over 350 units to institutes in the education sector and also secured the third largest order in the ASEAN region of 611 units from a major consulting house.

HCL Frontline Division forged an exclusive alliance with Toshiba in 1997 to market and support the Japanese giant's notebook computers in the country. Through HCL Frontline, Toshiba already markets four families of notebooks in India - Toshiba Satellite, Satellite Pro range, Portégé and Tecra.

ABOUT TOSHIBA

Toshiba's superior product quality and regular technology innovations have ensured for it the numero uno position in the global market year after year. The International Data Corporation (IDC) has itself certified Toshiba the leader in the global and ASEAN levels.

Toshiba has to its credit several firsts - the world's first AT compatible 286 portable as far back as in 1986, the world's first 486 TFT colour notebook, the first notebook brand to have an installed base of 18500000 notebooks … the list could go on.

Toshiba has been making an average investment of about six per cent of turnover into Research & Development annually. A result of this is that Toshiba holds more than 350 patents in the area of notebook design and architecture. All this has helped it maintain the highest levels of quality and reliability in its notebook range and to introduce pioneering technology ahead of others in the market.

ABOUT HCL FRONTLINE DIVISION

The HCL Frontline Division focuses on providing solutions and value-added services to small and medium corporates, the small office/home office and the homebuyer. Involved in marketing and distributing national and international brands of computer systems and peripherals, the Frontline Division evolves innovative channel strategies to widen its market reach, and offers value added support services to users. The extensive distribution network established by the Division encompasses more than 800 resellers and close to 120 retail outlets across 300 cities. Using its unmatched strength in distribution, Frontline has big plans to increase penetration of notebooks in SOHO/SME segments. The organisation plans to use its already established retail network in big way for this. It has proved its distribution might in the PC segment already where it has pioneered on several fronts, with retail being just one.

The Division's singular mission has been to continuously anticipate and explore technologies that have emerged as strong trends and established market standards in the computing world globally, and bringing these to the Indian user in as short a time as possible. Widely recognised for opening up several frontiers of the world of computing to Indian users, the Division has partnered Dragon Systems, Inc., the world's leading supplier of speech and language technology, to introduce speech recognition tools in the country.