After the well-known events of February 2022, laptops from almost all so-called grand brands partially or completely left the Russian market. By data CNews portal, overall sales of laptops in our country fell by 25% in money and by 12% in volume. The drawdown affected both the largest Taiwanese manufacturers Acer and Asus (52% each), and the giants of the American laptop industry, Apple, Dell, HP (over 80%). And this is not the only transformation of the market: in Russia it is becoming increasingly difficult to buy a computer with licensed Windows due to Microsoft’s harsh position towards Russia.
No, this does not mean that laptops from major brands running Windows have stopped reaching Russian users altogether. There are numerous parallel import schemes, through which laptops from top American and Taiwanese manufacturers end up in Russian hands. But even legalized parallel imports have several very significant disadvantages.
Firstly, the price of laptops from top brands in Russia has jumped to incredible values: sometimes 2 times more than in the country of origin. Secondly, in the event of a serious breakdown, there will most likely be problems with warranty service and the delivery of spare parts. Finally, thirdly, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation is actively develops parallel import ban program: the import of Acer, Asus, Cisco, HP and MSI laptops may be completely stopped. Therefore, parallel imports cannot be considered as a reliable, predictable option for the development of the laptop market.
There is a second scenario – filling the market with Chinese manufacturers. All the same statistics CNews, in 2023, the share of Chinese laptops on the shelves of retail chains Eldorado and M.Video jumped to 40%. These are companies initially focused on the production of smartphones, wireless headphones and other gadgets, but not laptops. In terms of reliability, such computers are significantly inferior to the Taiwanese and American grand brands, and their price often does not correspond to the quality and technical characteristics. The reviews speak volumes about the level of such laptops.
Review of one of the laptops of the Chinese brand.
And these are the top, expensive, most famous among Chinese brands. In addition to them, laptops from dozens of “no-name” Chinese manufacturers began to reach Russian users. Many of these laptops are literally disposable. Therefore, the complete transition of Russians to Chinese laptops is an unlikely and rather undesirable scenario.
“Russian laptop” as one of the scenarios for the development of the laptop market in Russia
Fortunately, for Russian mobile PC users there is a third, more optimistic scenario. This is a transition to Russian brands. No, these are not companies that buy, deliver and resell cheap Chinese laptops under their logo. We are talking about companies that are being introduced into the processes of creating and producing laptops by Chinese factories. And then they bear full responsibility to the consumer for the quality of products sold with their logo. Practice shows that there are such companies in Russia, and they are now developing the fastest.
A laptop from the Chelyabinsk company Echips, one of the promising Russian laptop brands.
It is worth recognizing that in Russia at the moment there is no sufficiently serious engineering school and production capabilities to replace imported laptops of grand brands with laptops entirely of our own production. Therefore, the most successful Russian brands have built an optimal business model that allows them to supply Russians with high-quality, reliable, and at the same time affordable laptops from China. A striking example – Chelyabinsk brand Echips.
Laptops sold under the Echips brand are produced in Chinese factories – the same ones that make computers for HP, Lenovo and Acer and according to the same technical specifications. After which they are purchased by a Chelyabinsk brand, modified/processed and sold to Russian users. Moreover, Chelyabinsk residents approach the choice of models for their brand as responsibly as possible. The Echips company uses only the most reliable, most indestructible, and best-proven models of laptops from grand brands. And this is how Echips operates differently from the way companies sell cheap Chinese models under their own logo.
This same processing does not mean simply sticking on the corporate logo of a Russian company, as many creators of the next “TOP laptops 2023” do, but in fact – just cheap Chinese one-day laptops. Reworking, in the sense that the guys at Echips understand it, is a deep adaptation and improvement of the basic characteristics of computers.
Echips laptops exclude all unnecessary, all optional and all elements that unjustifiably increase the cost of the computer. They don’t have glowing logos, flexible screens or other extra options/features that would make the prices of Echips laptops higher without any real clear benefit to the average consumer. At the same time, the Chelyabinsk brand never skimps on the functionality of its laptops. Although all laptops in the Echips lines belong to the budget and mid-range segment (the average cost of a Chelyabinsk laptop is 30,000 rubles, the price of top models does not exceed 45,000 rubles), the brand does everything to ensure that every ruble in the price tag is justified by real benefits for the consumer. If it is possible to install more powerful speakers while saving on something less significant, the Echips team will do just that.
Echips laptops are delivered to users with the official licensed Windows OS installed. This sharply distinguishes the Chelyabinsk brand from dozens of small Russian companies that resell cheap Chinese laptops – without an operating system (FreeDOS), without a Russian keyboard and localization. Installing an operating system will require the average user to either have basic knowledge of information technology or pay for the services of a specialist (read: the cost of the computer will increase by an additional 5-6 thousand rubles). So the benefit for the end consumer from the 3rd option for the development of the laptop market is obvious.
The prospects of the chosen business model are confirmed by bare numbers: as of the summer of 2023, Russian Echips laptops had already been purchased by over 100,000 users. Moreover, starting in 2022 – after the grand brands left the market – sales of Chelyabinsk laptops increased by as much as 300% and were 2 times higher than sales of laptops from top Chinese brands.
In addition, the 3rd way is the most reliable and predictable for the average user. Unlike grand brands, which cannot provide stable and high-quality service under the conditions of sanctions, and from cheap Chinese brands, which have no intention of doing this, the Russian brand Echips is fully responsible for its products. Echips laptops are provided with a minimum one-year warranty, and with annual service at a certified center, the warranty period increases to three years. During this period, the service department of the Chelyabinsk team will quickly carry out repairs (in Moscow and Chelyabinsk, repairs are carried out on site, that is, directly to the user’s home or office), and if it is impossible to repair the computer, they will simply issue a new, replacement one, installing a replacement one in it disk from the user’s broken laptop.
Warehouse of Chelyabinsk Echips laptops – essentially the same HP, Lenovo and Acer, but modified specifically for the Russian market.
This approach is UNIQUE today: even the grand brands do not offer it. And this approach gives Russian users confidence in the laptop they are buying – and this is exactly what is missing when buying Chinese no-name computers imported into the country using obscure schemes.
Reviews of Echips laptops are mostly positive – on all sites where they are sold (Ozon, DNS, M.Video, etc.).
As written above, explosive sales growth in 2022 harsh Chelyabinsk laptops Echips – a clear illustration of the fact that the third option for the development of the laptop market is the most realistic, namely, the transition to Russian brands that bear full responsibility to the consumer for their laptops. Now, at the end of 2023, 1,500-2,000 Echips laptops are sold per week – a figure that is many times higher than the sales of the best Chinese brands.
To summarize, it is possible that the “great exodus” of top American and Taiwanese laptop brands does not necessarily mean that the market will quickly and irrevocably be filled with “original” Chinese. This is what happens, for example, with the car market. It is quite possible that in the near future, when deciding which laptop to choose, Russians will confidently give preference to our Russian brands. And then, even if top foreign laptop manufacturers want to return, the space of online stores and retail chains will already be densely filled with good domestic brands. The products of which, assembled in the same factories as the grand brands of laptop manufacturing, will be in no way inferior to the latter in terms of quality, functionality/technical equipment, or reliability.
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