Many of the parents of the students are worried over the shortage of laptops in the market due to a sudden jump in the demand with schools and other educational institutions offering classes online.
“There is a serious shortage of basic models of laptops in the country and I found it really difficult to get a piece after visiting three major retail outlets in town,” said an Omani father of three children.
With the Supreme Committee announcement of a mix of online and classroom learning from November 1, hypermarkets and shops are witnessing huge demand for laptops since the last few days.
“There is global shortage in all brands of laptops as production of the same has been affected since March this year. Added to it is the sudden surge in the demand,” purchaser of a leading brand of hypermarkets and malls said, adding that they received just 25 units of laptops against a requirement 500 units recently.
Vivek, a sales person with a leading regional brand said they are left with just one piece of a high end brand at a price of RO 339. “Although such a high-end model is not needed for online classes, a customer insisted that he’d go for it for his 8th standard boy,” said Vivek.
“I bought two laptops for my children two weeks ago expecting that I was not going to send my kids to schools any time soon and that was a good decision,” Habiba al Harthiyah a saleswoman with a leading automotive company, said.
Conversely, the demand for tablets increased only slightly as parents were not really keen to get a tablet for their children mainly due to fear of it being used for gaming.
“The demand is universal as the usage as well as production have increased globally. We have a few high end models coming and that too is in demand. We sold 15 pieces in less than 20 hours,” another representative of a retail chain said. “No laptops below RO 300 are available. It will take time to resume regular flow of laptops in the market.” Majority expat schools began online classes from April onwards and a few expatriate parents said that they have already secured laptops and tablets earlier. Besides, each school had a free laptop programme aiming at financially backward parents, thanks to the good Samaritans in the society.
However, the traders say shortage of laptops won’t last as companies have expedited production.
“We are getting the feedback that all the major vendors have expedited their production, smoothened their logistics and the current scarcity of laptops would be addressed in a few days time,” a computer seller told the Observer.
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