PC sales expected to register 7 percent growth

By siliconindia   |   Wednesday, 15 July 2009, 15:17 IST   |    10 Comments
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PC sales expected to register 7 percent growth
Bangalore: PC consumption in the current fiscal year 2009-10 is expected to cross 7.3 million units, registering a seven percent growth after improving market sentiments, as the sales comprising desktop computers, notebooks and netbooks dropped by seven percent in the period between April '08 and March '09. The total sales figure were 6.79 million (67.9 lakh) units, which is a decline by seven percent as compared to the previous year. IT consumption in 2008-09 was severely impacted in the second half of the fiscal year. A study commenced by Manufacturers' Association for Information Technology (MAIT), a body representing India's IT hardware, training and R&D services sectors, stated the findings of its Industry Performance Review for fiscal 2008-09. Sales of notebooks dropped sharply by 17 percent, compared to 114 percent previous year. Desktop sales went down by four percent. The October - December quarter was the most severely impacted, subsequent to which growth in PC consumption started to show signs of revival. "Consumer sentiment was subdued due to uncertainty in the economy in 2008-09 which impacted the consumption of IT in the country. While consumption in the first-half of the fiscal was satisfactory, less than expected off take in sales in the second-half pulled down the overall growth into the negative quadrant. A silver lining in the second-half of 2008-09 was the emergence of a new product category, the net book that took the fancy of the consumers. This new form-factor appeared to be better insulated from the prevailing market sentiments," said Vinnie Mehta, Executive Director, MAIT. "Desktop sales registered 5.27 million (52.7 lakh units) declining by four percent, Notebooks along with netbooks recorded 1.51 million (15.1 lakh) units with a fall of seven percent. Consumption of netbooks exceeded 70 thousand units in fiscal 2008-09. There were traditional downward trend in pricing for IT products as the dollar continued to be strong against the rupee," informed Mehta. Western India led PC consumption accounting for 37 percent, and South followed by 23 percent of the market respectively. Sales in the West grew by twelve percent over 2007-08, while in South it declined 22 percent. PC consumption in the East increased by 18 percent, accounting to 22 percent of the market, a reflection of IT activities making their way in the region. The Northern states witnessed a decline of 34 percent in PC sales, they accounted for 18 percent of the market. MNC's had a share of 51 percent of the total desktop market in 2008-09, registering eight percent growth as compared to 45 percent share last year. Indian brands fell from 22 percent to 18 percent, a decline of 22 percent in overall. Assembled desktops and unbranded systems witnessed a negative growth of 10 percent in absolute units accounting for 31 percent, down from 33 percent, of total desktop sales in 2008-09. Desktop consumption in 2008-09 was dominated by P4 based units, which accounted for 59 percent of total sales. Server sales declined by two percent, as the number of internet users rose from 7.2 million to 8.6 million.

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