Micromax launches Canvas LapTab at Rs 14,999

NEW DELHI: Micromax Informatics, the largest home-bred handset maker, will enter into the personal computing segment with Canvas LapTab – a tablet which can function as a laptop when attached to a portable keypad – priced at Rs 14,999 even as it plans to expand its presence in this segment with laptops and personal computers going forward.

The company, which already makes tablets and flat screen televisions, will launch the laptab at an on May 6 on Amazon’s India site exclusively, before introducing it to the offline retail channels countrywide later on. The 10-inch screen Windows-8.1 enabled laptab powered by Intel processor will be targeted at students, travelers, and enterprises with large sales force automation workforce.

“We will launch five to six laptab models by March next year, which will more than 10-inches in screen size,” said Vikas Jain, co-founder of Micromax, which has a 20% market share in the smartphone segment, but slipped out of the top five tablet makers in the October-December quarter last year, as per International Data Corporation.

“We will move into pure laptops and pure personal computers overtime. We are thinking of manufacturing it in India,” Jain added. The company is talking to other online partners for selling the laptabs and will have separate sections in its retail stores for selling the models offline.

Micromax had announced a dual OS tablet, also called LapTab, which would essentially have the Android and Windows operating systems in the same machine, but the project has been shelved due to differences between the OS owners, Jain told ET. The dual OS model was showcased in CES 2014 and was supposed to hit retail shelves the same year.

With the Canvas LapTab’s official entry into the Indian market, Micromax will compete with HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer and others in the PC market, some of who have convertible laptops or notebooks that work as tablets when removed from the keyboard or are flexible to be used as laptop and tablet at any time.

The Laptab is pre-bundled with genuine MS offerings like Windows 8.1 and Office 365, which are worth over Rs 11,000 and comes with in-built 3G SIM slot for mobile data connectivity. The Laptab has a 7,700 mAh battery, 10.1-inch WXGA IPS touch-enabled display, Intel Atom Processor with speed upto 1.83Ghz and a 2GB RAM, it also comes with a 2MP rear camera and a 2MP front camera for video calling.

The Laptab also comes with a guaranteed upgrade to the Windows 10 operating system, when Microsoft launches it sometime within this calendar year.