It was a sunny afternoon when I finished my lunch, hopped into a cab, and began writing questions for an interaction with Mr. Avneet Singh Marwah, CEO of SPPL, Thomson’s Exclusive Licensee in India. As I had received an email prior informing me that Thomson is bringing back its laptop range. After a few Google searches I came to know that Thomson is already present in parts of Europe and is doing quite well.
For the uninitiated, Thomson is set to launch laptops in India in the coming two quarters and is considering exporting India-made smart TVs globally. Their India licensee, SPPL, is investing Rs 300 crore in a Hapur plant to boost TV production to 2 million units yearly. Already selling laptops in the US and Europe, Thomson aims for a strong presence in India’s laptop segments. Having re-entered India in 2018 via SPPL, they now target a top-five global market position and explore exporting Indian-manufactured TVs.
As someone who has rigorously tested possibly hundreds of laptops, some for work, others for fun, since 2020, I was sure of one thing. The laptop space needs some much-needed disruption. I mean, compared to the smartphone manufacturers, laptop OEMs play a little safe, except for ASUS, which by the way, is the only one to democratize OLED displays in budget laptops.
“While the legacy laptop and the new-age laptop brand employ different strategies that work for them in one way or another. We are not here for that. Thomson as a brand has a rich history of making computer devices and we fully intend to inspire ourselves from that to make a comeback and disrupt the market.” Avneet said with substantial confidence.
I assumed he had been giving interviews all morning. Either he now knows what journalists are primarily interested in, or he is truly confident about Thomson making a comeback.
So for my next question, I abandoned my script as now I too was determined to find more interesting stuff. And to my question about potential Thomson laptop categories, Avneet’s answer was – “in every category, starting from budget, all the way to high-end gaming laptops. And most importantly with variation within a particular model.” Which, as you may have guessed, became the topic of discussion for the next 5 minutes.
“Sounds exciting but what exactly does that mean?” I asked promptly.
“Most OEMs, particularly international ones, instead of offering multiple variants of a particular model, prefer to dump the best, most well-equipped one, hoping it’d find the right audience, instead of allowing the audience to find the best one for them.”
I agree with the part that the audience needs more options. India is still an aspirational market, a fast-growing one, but still aspirational. If I can save Rs 2,000 by buying a variant with lower memory and upgrading it later down the line, I’d always do so. As for the part about foreign OEMs, I mostly agree because it is always an evolving situation.
For instance, the HP Envy x360 15, is available in a plethora of variants. The same is true for many laptops from Lenovo. Dell lags behind but its budget series has multiple options. And speaking of options, my question expanded on that as I inquired about the type of laptops that we could see Thomson bringing to India.
“Mainstream, creator, and gaming. We’re launching the entire portfolio with multiple variants of each laptop model as well.” Avneet said nonchalantly.
“Any indication on price?” I asked.
“For gaming laptops around $900-$1000, for creator laptops around $600-$800 and for budget laptops around $300-$400,” Avneet suggested.
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Of course, these prices are mere predictions at this point and we will have to wait tentatively till January, when the laptops officially launch. But there was more I wanted to know so I continued with questions.
“AMD or Intel for the processors?” I asked.
“Intel, for the entire range,” Avneet replied.
“Nvidia or AMD for the GPUs? I continued asking.
“We will have to wait till January to find that out,” Avneet concluded. So I guess, I will let Digit readers know about the same on January 2024.
But what we do know right now is exactly what disruption Thomson will be bringing to laptops. So Sebastian Crombez, who is the Trademark & Marketing Manager for Thomson France, showed me one laptop he had been using.
So up until now, we had been talking about how Thomson laptops would be different and now I had one in my hands. Its chassis was made out of metal and was quite strong. The unknown Thomson laptop also had an ergo lift design, a top-facing speaker grille, placed just above the keyboard, and a touchscreen as well, which I remember was very bright and also quite glossy. Avneet assured me that a focus on build quality will be paramount across the entire range.
What followed was a discussion about after-sales service, something Avneet was pretty excited to talk about.
“So these laptops seem feature-rich, but what about the service can I expect physical after-sales service locations in places like Noida?” I inquired.
“Well, you can expect them in places like Bulandsheher, Agra, and in a whole lot of Tier 2 cities as well,” Avneet answered.
With such an aggressive stance, I had to ask about their long-term plan. In the tech world, no one is unfamiliar with people making extravagant promises. I mean Google just announced 7-year software support for its latest Pixel 8 series smartphones which struggle to scroll smoothly across many apps even in 2023, the year they’re launched.
“We are not testing the waters, we are here for disruption. We don’t have a figure per se of what our initial sales numbers will look like but we are confident that customers will find our products unique. We may not be on the bleeding edge of technology but we are definitely focused about producing tech that’s friendly and easy to use for everyone.”
With this, I shook Avneet’s and Sebastian’s hands, took my black coffee, and came back to Digit’s office. Reminiscing about the entire conversation, I felt that the promises made by Thomson were exciting, impressive, and intriguing. Yet, I was left with the same thought I had earlier in the afternoon, that the laptop space could still use even more disruption.
The interview was edited for clarity and SEO. All views expressed remain those of the participants.
