Panasonic India has launched a new fully-rugged, 2-in-1 lightweight Toughbook CF-20, a laptop the company says is designed for challenging environments.
Priced at Rs 225,000, the laptop is targeted at users in sectors such as defense, oil and gas, transportation and logistics, healthcare, insurance and public safety sectors.
The Toughbook can be easily detached and become a 10.1-inch tablet. Panasonic says it can work smoothly in extreme conditions.
Gunjan Sachdev, National Business Head (Toughbook), Panasonic India, said: "Aimed to meet the evolving needs of enterprises, the CF-20 is bundled with a broad range of configurable options. The ability to detach the tablet from notebook provides flexibility and unparalleled reliability and enterprise-grade features."
The company aims to sell one million units of the product every year in the global market.
"We have a market share of 60-70 per cent in the rugged PC category. We have agreements with many government and global companies to use our product. The PCs are sold only for B2B category," Sachdev said.
When asked if the company is looking to open a manufacturing facility for Toughbook in India, he said the entire global demand is the company's Japan and Taiwan plants "so at the moment we are not looking to open a separate facility in India."
The company also said that it is in talks with many state governments to use Panasonic tabs and Toughbook in Police monitoring.
The Panasonic Toughbook CF-20 will be available in India in August 2016 from authorised Panasonic resellers and is backed by a three-year limited warranty.
Kensei Isaki, Manager, Asia Pacific & India Sales Section, Overseas Sales Department, IT Products Business Division (ITPBD), AVC Networks Company said, "India is a very important market for us. Even though European and American market contributes maximum to our sales but the economies like India and China will drive our next phase of growth."
He said that 5-6 per cent of Panasonic's total business comes from India and the company hopes the number will double in the next 5-6 years. The company’s business has grown 20-30 per cent per annum over the last few years.
On the latest devise launched by the Japanese giant, Isaki said, "While enterprises continue to diversify, the need of the hour is mobile computing. Mobility particularly at mission-critical situations give an edge to businesses. We are proud to state that Panasonic is amongst the few device manufacturers to offer complete customization for our rugged-devices, in-house."
BW Reporters
The author is Senior Correspondent with BW Businessworld
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