Grand Vitara: Riding the SUV boom

India may not exactly be gizmo-land. Until of course you squeeze your way into the infamous grey-market shopping havens in the big cities, in which you'd find the kind of software and hardware that would invariably make you wish you earned two times as much you do currently. In the computer world, Apple's Power Mac G5 rules the roost. Yes, it might cost an arm and a leg, but it is fast! But, then again, Macintosh is not exactly mass-market. That's right up Microsoft's street. Windows fans can get their PCs (any make) equipped with AMD's new 64-bit Athlon processor. This really does make certain applications a lot faster and data gets crunched in double-sized (vis-à-vis standard 32-bit processors) bites.

On the software front, there is always a lot happening, and some good new versions could be seen on shopshelves. These include a brilliant version of Apple's Final Cut Pro, which can help you put a movie together. But for those of us not aspiring to be Steven Spielberg (or even, ouch, Kaizad Gustad), the most significant bit of software launched last year was the new Microsoft Office Suite. There may be quite a few naysayers out there, but believe us: This is really the most radically advanced version of MS-Office in several years, and is worth it for, if nothing else, the far slicker version of MS-Outlook (that e-mail/organiser program that you usually wrestle with in the morning).

The good news for shutterbugs was not necessarily new models of digital cameras, but that they just got a load cheaper. Still not cheap enough, though, and when you consider the printing costs perhaps it's still not time for most of us to acquire one. For music aficionados (and music pirates, never mind the war against them!), MP3 players became a lot smaller. In fact, Moser Baer made life a lot easier by easing the supply chain on blank writable CDs.

If there was any one category that boomed last year, it's undoubtedly cellphones. It's pretty common these days to see consumers swapping phones every few months, the latest acquisition not necessarily being the best. Example: Nokia's N-Gage, which is not just unwieldy-you've got to hold it sideways to your ear to talk-but has the nasty habit of crashing at (naturally) crucial moments. BT's test N-Gage displayed this delightful message: 'Start-up failure. Please contact your retailer.' The retailer we contacted had never seen the phone (it had just been launched) and had no idea what to do. In contrast the SonyEricsson T610 is cool, but certainly not as cool as Samsung's sleek SPH A600 rotating camera phone. Over the past few months, Nokia and SonyEricsson, to their credit, have done well to launch handy executive phones. The Nokia 6600, for instance, has a lovely shape and great functionality and the SonyEricsson P900 is possibly the best crossover phone/handheld on the market today.

2003 saw the launch of several flat screen television sets and DVD players-with more competitive price tags. In fact, today a 21-inch flat-screen TV costs downwards of Rs 15,000 and a DVD player is available for only Rs 5,000. And it can only get better from here, what with Chinese products expected to invade the market-one Chinese consumer electronics producer, Haier, had a December launch. Expect price-cuts on products like thin-panel LCD and plasma screen TV sets and computer monitors too.

We can't leave out the cars, can we! 2003 was clearly the year of the SUV, with the Suzuki Grand Vitara, Honda CR-V, Hyundai Terracan, and the Chevrolet Forrester hitting the roads. Yet, the best four-wheeler to be launched last year arguably is the revamped Honda City. It's the most radical looking car in India, has stunning fuel economy and despite its size is very spacious, due to its 'cab-forward' design. 2004 will of course be a year of even more exciting launches, the new Tata Indica Estate being just one them.

2003 was not the most happening of years on the technology front, but this year we did see glimpses of what the future might hold for us in India. Blue-ray discs, 128-bit processing, direct-to-home TV, super-efficient hybrid cars.... Let's see what 2004 holds in store.

-Kushan Mitra