National Semiconductor Inc is talking to India’s branded and local PC manufacturers to make a $720 multimedia machine. Leading players like Compaq Computer Corp, Hewlett-Packard Co, HCL Corp Pvt Ltd and Digital Equipment Corp are already engaged in an intense price war, by offering fully-functional PC’s at prices starting from $1,110. In July last year, National Semiconductor acquired Cyrix Corp, a leading supplier of microprocessors to the PC industry. The firm is in talks with Indian branded and local system integrators like HCL, Zenith Ltd. and Unicorp Ltd. to hammer out the system configuration for a $720 PC. National Semiconductor’s target is to take 30% of the entry level market, roughly half of the 800,000 laptop/PC market in 1997, -by the end of the year.
