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PC sales cross two million units in Q1
By siliconindia
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Wednesday, 17 September 2008, 00:58 IST
New Delhi: April-June quarter of fiscal 2008-09 has witnessed PC sales including desktops and notebooks cross two million units, registering a growth of seventeen percent over the same period in the last fiscal, says a study by MAIT, the apex body representing the hardware, training and R&D services sectors of the IT industry in the country. Titled Quarterly Industry Performance Review, the report says that the sales of notebooks and servers witnessed a robust growth during the quarter while growth in desktop consumption continued to remain marginal.
Despite the domestic economy being under pressure, the market sentiment for IT consumption remains positive and sales in second quarter are expected to be steady. In the first-half of FY 2008-09, the desktop sales are expected to cross 2.49 million units while notebooks sales are expected to exceed 1.35 million units.
Commenting on the findings of the study, Vinnie Mehta, Executive Director, MAIT said, "Notebook consumption has driven the PC market in India in Q1 2008-09. With sales crossing 0.61 million units in the first quarter of this fiscal, notebooks account for close to a third of the total PC market in the country, up from less than three percent four years ago. With shifting consumer-preference in favor of notebooks over the desktop, this proportion will only get larger with time. Further, with a large number of vendors announcing ultra-portable PCs, the market is expected to become more exciting."
"The first quarter was driven by increased consumption in the household segment while industry verticals and corporate sectors such as telecom, banking & financial services, manufacturing, e-governance and IT-enabled services, experienced steady consumption. Apart from the traditional sectors, consumption was also witnessed in SMEs, education, retail and other computer-centric small enterprises. Aggressive pricing by the PC vendors has also helped improve the PC penetration, especially in the households and the SME segments," he added.
He said that apart from the households, the education vertical was emerging as another key driver for PC consumption in the country. With privately managed schools and colleges adopting PCs at a brisk rate, PC penetration in these segments is expected to gain traction in the near future.
MAIT's Industry Performance Review - ITOPs, conducted by leading market research firm IMRB (Indian Market Research Bureau), is bi-annual and aims to address the hardware sector's efforts to manage the business environment as well as gauge the market potential and consumer trends.
