I-Life, a US-based tech company, has entered the Indian market in an exclusive partnership with e-commerce retailer Flipkart. The company has launched three new products under its flagship ‘Zed’ series, which includes the Book 2-in-1 detachable laptop, Air laptop and Air Pro ultra-slim notebook. All the three devices are priced between Rs 9,999 and Rs 12,990 and can be pre-ordered on Flipkart. By selling wallet-friendly Windows 10 laptops, i-Life is aiming to reach a sizable number of the population who have otherwise left in the digital revolution. Deepak Bhatia, Director- Sales & Marketing of I-Life, told indianexpress.com that the company is targeting the affordable-priced ultra-thin notebooks, convertible laptops and 2-in-1 detachable categories in India. This segment is roughly 10 per cent of the total PC market and has recorded double-digit growth, as per IDC. “Consumers today do not require those bulky notebooks anymore,” Bhatia said, adding that a young, first-time buyer is aspiring to have a slim and thin device in the affordable segment. He said that the most of the competition have slow to adopt these new emerging PC categories. In the first phase of its expansion plan in India, I-Life is bringing the Zed Book 2-in-1 detachable laptop, Air laptop, and Air Pro ultra-slim notebooks to India. The Zed Book is a 2-in-1 detachable notebook with a 10.1-inch touchscreen display, Intel Atom quad-core processor, 2GB RAM, 32GB internal memory, and up to six hours of battery life. The detachable is priced at Rs 9,999 and will be available in Gold and Grey colour options. The two ultra-slim notebooks have aluminum chassis and come in 12.5-inch and 14-inch screen sizes, respectively. The notebooks are powered by an Intel Atom quad-core processor, 2GB RAM, 32GB storage, and up to 8 hours of battery backup. The Zed Air Pro is priced at Rs 10,999, while the Zed Air at Rs 12,990. I-Life has tied up F1 Info solutions & services ( a Flipkart owned company), one of the leading service providers in India that will service more than 4500 pin codes. In the next quarter, right before Diwali, I-Life will be launching four to five more devices in India, starting from portable All-in-One to with up a clamshell with a hard-drive built-in. In the second phase of expansion, I-Life plans to get into modern retail and will be partnering with Croma, Reliance Digital and other key organised retail chains. The company is also looking to manufacture its laptops in the country under the ‘Make in India’ initiative. “We’re now analysing what kind of costs, investments and benefits are there to make at least an SKD (Semi Knocked Down) unit here in India - either directly or as an outsource. If it is outsourced, then I wouldn’t still consider it as 100 % per cent ‘Make in India’. But we’re looking at doing ourselves so that we are in full control,” Bhatia said. I-Life, set up in 2012, is currently one of the largest mobility vendors in the Middle East, Africa and CIS (Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, etc) countries. It is currently present in over 43 countries and has recently entered Turkey and South African. In the convertible notebook segment in the Middle East and Africa, I-Life held the fourth position with a market share of 9.4 per cent in the third-quarter of 2017, according to research firm IDC.
