PC market grew 29% in 2004-05: IDC

By agencies   |   Friday, 20 May 2005, 19:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: The India PC market grew 29 percent in 2004-05 with the sale of over 3.6 million units, fuelled by strong demand from the notebook and consumer desktop segments following reduction in prices, research firm IDC said today. ''Consistent fall in notebook prices coupled with innovative schemes and promotions led to growth. There were massive investments in the private educational sector that provided the momentum for growth in this market,'' IDC said. While the number of desktops sold was 33,57,424, the figure for notebooks was 2,21,390 and 67,093 for X-86 servers, totaling 36,45,907 units. ''On a base of 3 million unit shipments, a further growth of nearly 30 percent is no mean achievement and the Indian PC industry needs to be complimented,'' IDC said. However, during the first quarter of 2005, the Indian PC market performed slightly lower than expected, largely due to the poor uptake in the consumer desktop market. ''The buyers had put their purchase decisions on hold in anticipation of price drops post the WTO ITA tariff reductions. The patchy implementation of VAT also caused some temporary confusion in the market,'' IDC India Senior Manager (Hardware Research) Sanjit Sinha said. As a result, after growing for seven consecutive quarters, the consumer desktop market in India declined 6 percent sequentially in the January to February quarter. The overall desktop segment, comprising consumer and commercial desktops, however, grew 16 percent in the first quarter of 2005 to total 8,97,000 units. The consumer desktop market in India grew 22 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2005. The commercial desktop segment grew 14 percent year-on-year basis to total at 6,08,000 units. Notebook sales in India grew nearly 87 percent in Q1 of 2005 compared to the same quarter a year ago, driven by corporate and government demand. HP emerged the leader with a nearly 33 percent market share. IDC said X86 server shipments in India grew an impressive 29 percent year-on-year. Imperative to the growth in numbers were key installations at financial institutions, coupled with a surge in shipments in the government space, Sinha added.