Laptop market

With the pandemic, we saw a rise in the prices of electric hardware, including computers and laptops. The demand for these devices was increased due to the new normal work from home culture. Now, as the demand has already risen, we see a few new entrants to the field of laptop manufacturing as well as old laptop manufacturing companies making a come-back too. Recently, the mobile and smartphone company Nokia launched its new series of laptops, and on the same rhythm, the famous laptop manufacturing company Vaio is also making a come-back to the Indian market.

The Vaio brand

Vaio Corporation is a Japanese laptop manufacturing company, where Vaio stands for Visual Audio Intelligent Organizer. It was originally the subsidiary of Sony, founded in 1996, but later, was acquired by Japan Industrial Partners (an investment firm based in Japan), in 2014.

The Vaio laptops were known for their spectacular designs and outstanding performance. In fact, Steve Jobs from Apple also had made an offer to Sony president, Kunitake Ando, to manufacture new MacOs based Vaio laptops. But the deal between the two wasn’t successful, and Sony came up with Vaio laptops having the Windows Operating System. The Vaio laptops have been popular in the high-end laptop category. Even, when Steve Jobs launched Apple’s first MacBook Air, he mentioned the Vaio laptop to compare the MacBook Air’s performance.

But the Vaio laptops began to lose their popularity when people started to realize that the Vaio laptops are too expensive for the specifications they were getting. In fact, they could get similar specifications in other brands’ laptops at cheaper prices. Not only the prices were too high, but the laptops were also underperforming. On the top, the laptops showed signs of overheating, causing burns to some of the users. The company had to spend $250 million to replace the Lithium-ion batteries of its around 10 million existing users in 2006.

As a result, after around a decade, Sony started seeing a downfall in sales. At that time, Sony was also focusing on its smartphone manufacturing, and rumors about Sony selling its laptop manufacturing unit started to speculate. Though the company did not confirm the news then, after a year of that, in 2014, it sold its laptop manufacturing unit to Japan Industrial Partners. The company admitted that it was facing a lot of loss in its laptop business.

Sony used to sell its products worldwide before the acquisition, but after that, the laptops were particularly available in Japan only. And, later, the company started to sell the laptops in America and Brazil, too. Despite the company is sold, Sony still has got a 5 percent stake in the company.

Coming Back to Asia

Now, the people who have always loved the Sony products, and the Vaio laptops, it is good news for them, as the Vaio laptops are coming back to Asia. The company has a new partner now, i.e., Nexstgo. The company has signed a licensing agreement with the Hong Kong-based company Nexstgo, so it will be the latter’s responsibility to manufacture, sell, and market the Vaio laptops in Asia.

Nexstgo has already started to market and sell the Vaio laptops in countries like Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and the Middle East countries. And now with the start of 2021, the company is all set to target the Indian market. Note that, Nexstgo is the same company that introduced the Avita laptops in India. In India, the company has partnered with Flipkart for marketing and selling the products. Flipkart has already started the marketing for the Vaio products on their specifically designed microsite for Vaio.

Announcing the relaunch of the Vaio laptops in India, the Regional Business Director of South Asia, Vaio, Seema Bhatnagar, stated in a press conference, “We are enthused to relaunch VAIO and associate with names that have made it big in the e-commerce industry. Introducing the finest-quality laptops in India, the brand focuses on reclaiming its space in the market while having an unrivaled demand by the customers. We are all set to present a futuristic laptop range to the country’s burgeoning tech-enthusiasts and young business professionals. We are looking forward to becoming the top choice for laptop buyers across the country.”

Though India is already aware of the quality and performance of the Vaio laptops, Nexstgo is looking for new methods to woo Indian customers. The company has said that the new Vaio laptops are “premium, intelligently-crafted” and are designed to deliver “exceptional” quality.

According to Vaio, the new laptops will be introduced in the Indian market by January 15th. Though there is a rise in the demand for laptops, it will be tough for new companies like Vaio and Nokia to make their place in the Indian market, when it is already dominated by the big players like HP, Dell, and Apple.