Computer chip and graphics manufacturer AMD has grown many-folds in India over the last three years and the country tops the chart in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region in terms of growth as well as revenues.

The company has grown its market share to 27 per cent in 2013 from 15 per cent in 2012. And, with the campaigns like ‘Digital India’ announced by the Government, the company hopes to go more in the future. The chip maker is looking to partner local smartphone companies in India.

In an exclusive interview with BusinessLine , David Bennett, Corporate Vice-President and General Manager (APAC and Japan), AMD, shares more plans and agendas for business in India. Edited excerpts:

How is India performing as compared to countries like Indonesia or Malaysia?

We have the highest share of commercial personal computer business in India than anywhere else in the APAC region with mega deals such as with Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan Governments.

We have 36 per cent share of revenue coming from India in the region in the commercial segment and around 18 per cent market share in the consumer PC segment. With burgeoning middle-class families with huge population less than 35 years of age group, it gives us more opportunities in India.

What opportunities do you see in India in future, especially with Government’s projects like Digital India?

We are quite bullish about PC sales. We are committed to continue investments in commercial PCs, double in our core businesses like consumer graphics and diversifying our revenues. We have new line of businesses — embedded semi-custom servers for products like Sony PlayStation and Apple Mac Pro — these are our way forward in India.

India is a price sensitive market so how would make sure that your products are better priced and at the same time cheaper than competitors?

The products line-up that we have across desktops, notebooks and graphics, will be at every price point and better to offer.

We have got better performance products and are inexpensive than others. Therefore, the advantage is not only we can offer prices that customers are looking for but also you get better value for it.

Till now you do not have anything (chips) for smartphones segment. Is there any plan to enter that segment in near future?

In mobile phones, we have not made any announcements yet. AMD have got lot of IPs in graphics and we are interested in meeting the consumers’ needs for high-end, high performing solutions.

The majority of the market is driven by low-cost, just kind of good enough processors coming out of China or other countries that we believe is not the market that we are interested in. We want to compete in a market where customers can gain the full benefit as adopters. But, we are not ruling out on mobile phones market.

In fact, we are very interested, but we have seen our competitors, including one of the largest companies in the world, have very challenging time in this segment because you have got a whole bunch of Chinese vendors.

So, when the market is ready for higher performing solutions, I think we will be ready to jump in there. We want to focus around things where we can win.

Are you also in talks with local players like Micromax and Lava for the smartphone processors?

The local manufacturers are extremely important for us. We are in active conversations with many companies in India.

For example, Lava came with an AMD-based tablet earlier this year with Xolo brand. That was one of the world’s first fully featured Windows-AMD tablets.

We hope to continue to find partners like Lava in India so that we can bring out revolutionary products. It is a big part of my strategy in APAC.

With the Government’s announcement of giving subsidies and other benefits to electronic manufacturing in India, would you be also part of those companies?

It depends on the companies. For example, if they want to manufacture in India, China or Taiwan, we can certainly supply our products where they are.

We have got around 1,100 people in India for two design centres, sales and marketing. We believe these kinds of incentives from the Government will only increase in future and as a company, we will look closely into it.

We have got lot of success in India and will continue our investments here.

In terms of revenues, what kind growth target do you have in India, in near future?

Last year, India was the No. 1 contributor in the region. From the commercial PCs’ perspective, we had around 30 per cent share and our goal is to reach 40 per cent this year.

But, if we win some mega deals (public/ Government projects), it will be more. In the consumer segment, we are targeting around 25-30 per cent this year from around 18 per cent earlier. In terms of total units from clients, we grew by 84 per cent year-on-year in 2013 versus 2012.

Therefore, the overall revenue will also grow from the India region.

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