Though market observers say the upward trend in components' prices, mainly memory blocks and motherboards are being observed since August, the jump since Tuesday has been quite significant. A 32Mb random access memory (RAM) block, which was being quoted Rs 1,600 on August 20, had gone up to Rs 2,650 on Monday. But suddenly it shot up to Rs 3,150 on Thursday. Similarly, a 64Mb RAM block, the most-popular choice, today was being quoted upwards of Rs 6,000 in the Delhi market compared to Rs 5,200 on Monday last and Rs 2,700 each on August 20 this year, market sources said.According to sources, Delhi's Nehru Place is the place for biggest margins in the grey market for components, while the cash-and-carry Lamington Road market in Mumbai operates on much lower margins. Though not to such an extent mother-board prices too have registered big gains since August of up to Rs 200 to Rs 350 during the period. For instance, a PPGA Celeron mother board which was priced at Rs 2,900 in August was being sold at Rs 3,100 on Monday but had shot up to Rs 3300 in the local market on Thursday.
While the present increase has hit the assemblers' segment in a major way, market sources feel the branded players too will have to increase their prices in the coming weeks. While Zenith Computers reportedly was thinking of a hike even before the Taiwan quake, according to sources, it may now be forced to factor-in the recent increases in memory prices.
Others too will have to follow suit with increases ranging between 40 per cent and 50 per cent on RAM alone since the prices have not been increased since July/August last, they said.
Considering India is a price-sensitive market, which is expecting a 30 per cent growth in hardware sales during the current year over the 1998-99 figure, Mehta feels the present price increase could affect the entry level systems market.
"But overall the impact could be marginal as the pull factor is much stronger than the push factor", he said.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.