Panasonic aims to double revenue from Toughbook series in India in next 4 years

New Delhi: Diversified technology company Panasonic India on Monday said it expects revenue from sales of its rugged laptop/tablets in the Indian market to double in the next four years.

Panasonic India, which is already a market leader in the segment with its Toughbook series of hand-held devices and rugged laptops, expects sectors such as warehousing, logistics and growing usage of drones to be catalysts in the growth.

Currently, the market size in India is roughly Rs 200 crore for rugged laptops/tablets and Panasonic Toughbook has around 60 per cent market share.

"The Indian market is growing at a CAGR of 20 per cent and is expected to touch Rs 500 crore in four years. We at Panasonic expect to double the Toughbook revenue in the same period," Panasonic India director S S D Vijay Wadhwan told PTI.

Panasonic said its Toughbook-based rugged computing devices solution is widely used by law enforcement agencies, defence installations, paramilitary forces, automobile makers and manufacturing companies.

"We are servicing over 500 large enterprises and over 10,000 units have been deployed into the emergency services such as police and fire services. These are also used by automotive and pharma industry," Wadhwan.

In India over eight states are using Panasonic Toughbook devices for emergency services. Besides, 90 per cent of the automotive companies that use rugged devices are from Pansonic.

"Pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, automotive, utility along with emergency services and defence are our customers," he said, adding now e-commerce is expanding and require more warehouses, which is creating more opportunity for Toughbook's hand-held devices in mission-critical areas.

Kotaro Kodama, Chief - Asia Pacific Region, Global sales department in Toughbook category, mobile solutions business division, Panasonic Connect Co, said India is an important market for Toughbook business and it continues to see growth owing to the rapid digital transformation, rising demand for mobile computing and evolving needs of enterprises.

"With nearly 60 per cent market share in India, we have seen significant demand for Panasonic rugged devices arising from defence, paramilitary, oil and gas, emergency services, manufacturing, automobile, logistics and power," he said.

Expanding its rugged laptop portfolio, Panasonic on Monday launched its first 14-inch fully rugged Toughbook 40 laptop for the Indian market.

The powerful new all-black model is built for use in the most extreme conditions, with military-grade security and communications capabilities to support mission critical operations, the company said.

"It is engineered with an aim to provide a world-class solution combining hardware, software, accessories and professional services for customers across the enterprise, public sector and emergency services," said Wadhwan.

Toughbook 40, with a 14-inch FHD touchscreen display, is over a pound lighter than the previous generation despite having a larger display. It has improved screen brightness, a color-selectable backlit keyboard, and backlit power button and keyboard icons for easier night viewing in low-light environments, the company said.

Its battery life is designed to support mission-critical operation with approximately 18 hours from one battery and 36 hours from two batteries, Panasonic added.

Toughbook is sold through Panasonic India's B2B arm Panasonic Business Solutions.