KIRAN PANDAY

HP Kasthamandap's computer servicing station in Kumaripati, a Dr. Frankenstein den of busted motherboards and meticulous repairwork, is at the heart of a new trend sweeping through Kathmandu: the emergence of the super-personal, customisable laptop.

Take 20-year-old engineering student and football fan Sameer, who has spiky hair, a bookbag slung over his shoulder and a blue HP laptop bearing the Manchester United insignia tucked under his arm. When Sameer ordered his laptop, he asked for specs ? techie lingo for computer specifications ? that would enable quality video gaming, including special video and graphics cards and a large monitor.

"I'm crazy about computer games and football, and I'd like everything I own, including this computer, to reflect that," he says. "Sure, custom laptops are a little pricey, but they're definitely worth it."

People like Sameer are willing to spend that little extra to cultivate a digital persona, which they exhibit in social networking accounts, blogs, gaming avatars and elsewhere.

Indeed, local distributors of laptops have banked on people like Sameer for the last six or seven years, in which period laptops have boomed in popularity. "We sell about 500 laptops a month. The price of notebooks has gone down significantly," says Rajan Man Tuladhar of CAS Trading House.

"Part of the reason why laptops have done so well is that it is trendy to have the latest models," says Sanjay Golcha of Neoteric, which distributes Apple, HP and Wipro laptops locally.

"A Macbook will be carried around with a lot more pride than some Chinese model ," adds Bibhor Agarwal of IT Trade Revolution.

New models hit the Nepali market every 3-6 months, which is about the global average. "There are already 12 models of Japanese Fujitsu laptops in Nepal", says Amit Agrawal of SHTC International, sole distributer of the brand in
Nepal.

Laptops have also profited from Nepal's taxing load-shedding schedule. "Laptops pretty much became popular among young professionals when loadshedding started as they can usually last through electricity cuts," explains Sujit Malla of HP Kasthamandap, which distributes HP merchandise. Workers in private companies often prefer laptops with smaller monitors and modest but robust hard drives. In comparison there are few laptops in government offices, but demand there is picking up as well.

But branded laptops face a stiff challenge from assembled computers and the grey market. Assembled computers were the first computers to appear in Nepal and remain popular because they are cheap and easily customisable. Fake laptops are also cheap but have few other virtues, yet dominate as much as 50 per cent of the local market. You can recognise them from their names ? a 'compak' instead of a 'compaq', for instance.

"I have had so many customers coming back to us and buying the genuine product after they have tried fake products. When you buy the genuine article you have peace of mind because you have a high-quality product with a warranty," says Niraj Thapa of Harati Computer Services.

A warranty and the extra service cost a significant Rs 2,000-5000, but sales figures suggest many believe it's worth the money. "We repair any hardware problems of Acer computers within four hours," declares Kabindra Jhonse of Mercantile.

Optimism about laptop sales, however, should be tempered by the reality that laptops aren't quite as popular here as they are elsewhere. "Although laptop sales are rising, desktops sales will also increase, especially in banks where data security is extremely important," says Sujan Mool of World Distribution Nepal.