PC Quest was once the sole magazine and authority in India for computer buffs until the advent of similar magazines such as Chip, I.T. , PC World. PC Quest was started by computer buffs such as Atul Chitnis and others to cater to the needs of other computer buffs. Started at a time when computers were sold at high prices it was read avidly and kept as an authority on computers by its readers.
It had a regular column where readers could get their computer related problems and doubts solved. It also had a column called Swap where program code of readers was printed. This was till the 90’s and the emergence of infotech and the fall in prices of computers. The magazine was the first to bundle a CD-Rom along with the magazine. As it had all the power in the market it started increasing its magazine cost in leaps and bounds from Rs. 25/- to the present Rs. 100/-. The advertising industry started increasing the ads in PC Quest. PC Quest neglecting the readers started increasing the number of ads printed in the magazine and reduced the articles printed in the magazine. Some of the columns affected was the Swap and and the help for readers. It practically reached the level of an admag!
The next event was the advent of the Macintosh in India, with this the magazine that called itself the personal computing magazine decided to increase its readership by dedicating several pages to the Mac in a magazine allegedly dedicated to the PC users. Coming under severe fire from angered PC users they abandoned this policy but till today they cover some Mac utilities in their CD-Rom.
The PC Quest owners then started chasing the corporate world to increase their profits, they probably felt Dataquest- a sister publication for the corporate world wasn’t a success. They decided to abandon their regular student readers and others who couldn’t afford a price hike and usually buy from news stands and don’t subscribe. This was the reason for the hike of the cover price to Rs. 100/-. They dropped many technical articles and leaned towards the corporate world by reviewing products suitable for them. As the readers dropped off they started a new magazine to try and regain them. The new magazine Computers@Home tried to cater to the readers but its technical articles are extremely basic and its an utter failure but, forgive me I digress. Coming back to PC Quest it then started facing competition from Chip which with an introductory cover price of Rs. 80/- started giving PC Quest a run for its money.
Chip from the very beginning promised to cater to all sections of computer buffs. It has regular solutions to computer users problems and also provides several tips for various common computer programs. Chip increased its price to Rs. 100/- to match the cover price of PC Quest but the higher quality paper of Chip was definitely worth it as also the thickness of the magazine with a lot of articles. Utilities on Chip CD’s are the icing on the cake. Though PC Quest may have been a pioneer of Linux in India, Chip also caters to Linux lovers. Now Chip offers 2 CD’s along with its magazine at the same cover price of Rs. 100/- definitely showing readers it can deliver quality without affecting quality. Chip showed India that a little competition can make a big difference.
PC Quest has started pulling up its socks.