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Product cover image for Primebook: Choosing the Next Bet in Budget Computing

Primebook: Choosing the Next Bet in Budget Computing

Sudhakar Singh, Ruchi Agarwal, Leena Ajit Kaushal

Product #:W52594
Supplier:MDI/Ivey
Discipline:Entrepreneurship, Strategy
Setting:India, 2026
Details:Case (PDF) • 18 pages • 2026-11-12

Subjects:

StrategyEntrepreneurshipDisruptive innovationBusiness modelsEmerging markets

Industries:

Consumer electronics

Geography:

IndiaAsia
Your Price:$10.54

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On April 2, 2026, Chitranshu Mahant, co-founder and chief executive officer of Floydwiz Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (Primebook), worked in his New Delhi office on the plan he owed his board in four days. Primebook sold Android-based laptops built on its own operating system to students and first-time users across India. Sales had grown nearly sixfold since financial year (FY) 2023, but the company had missed break-even, with its FY 2026 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization margin roughly eight percentage points short. Rising memory-component and customer-acquisition costs and competition from JioBook and other budget rivals compounded the pressure. Limited capital could fund only one of three strategic options: custom hardware, brand building, or an ecosystem of software and services. Mahant had to decide which bet to lead with and which to defer.

Learning Objectives

The case is suited to advanced undergraduate, graduate, and executive education programs in strategic management, innovation management, entrepreneurship, platform and ecosystem strategy, and corporate strategy, including graduate electives on disruptive innovation, business-model innovation, competitive advantage, and strategic decision-making.

After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to do the following:

  • Evaluate a firm’s competitive positioning using Michael E. Porter’s generic strategies and assess whether a hybrid strategy is sustainable.
  • Analyze how a business model evolves through changes in value creation, delivery, and capture.
  • Apply the four-element test of disruptive innovation to judge whether a firm qualifies as a disruptor.
  • Analyze a firm’s ecosystem to identify partners, dependencies, and risks and evaluate steps toward greater ownership.
  • Recommend a sequence for competing investments that balances near-term profitability against long-term advantage.
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Case Study: Primebook: Choosing the Next Bet in Budget Computing (English version) | Ivey Publishing