PC sales to touch 3 million in 2003-04

Our infotech bureau
07 January 2004

New Delhi: The Indian desktop PC market grossed 12.58 lakh units in the six months ended Sept 2003, registering a growth of 32 per cent over the same period in the previous year, according to MAIT, the association of hardware, training and R&D services sectors of the Indian IT industry. This is the first time first-half sales have crossed the 1 million mark. MAIT expects PC sales for the full year to touch 3 million.

MAIT cites "sound macroeconomic conditions" and "buoyant buying sentiment in the market" as the reasons for its revising its PC sales growth projections for FY 2003-04 from the earlier 20 per cent to 30 per cent. PC sales in 2002-03 were 2.3 million. These figures are contained in MAIT''s industry performance review for the first-half of 2003-04.

According to MAIT, the boost has come from sectors such as telecom, banking and financial services, IT-enabled services and the central and state governments. Another factor was the drop in prices, especially for entry-level products, which has perked up purchases by small and medium enterprises and homes. The trend of increased PC sales in smaller towns and cities, witnessed last year, has continued undiminished.

Entry level PC prices have dropped to Rs.20,000; and those for notebooks to Rs.50,000, and servers to less than Rs.1 lakh. The prices of inkjet and laser printers have also declined.

MAIT''s half-yearly Industry Performance Review, or ITOPs, is conducted by the Indian Market Research Bureau. MAIT also reviews the industry''s quarterly performance. The ITOPs study for the first-half of FY 2003-04 involved face-to-face interviews with over 20,000 respondents selected randomly from 16 cities in India. The MAIT-IMRB surveys, initiated in 1996-97, cover five broad product segments - computers, networking products, printers, other peripherals and the Internet.

Assembled PC share grows
Smaller, lesser known regional brands and unbranded systems, accounted for 57 per cent of the PC sales in H1/2003-04 from 48 per cent on a year-to-year basis. Sales of such ''assembled'' brands grew by 57 per cent. The share of Indian brands declined to 20 per cent from 22 per cent earlier; but their absolute numbers grew 20 per cent. The share of MNC brands fell from the earlier 30 per cent to 23 per cent, while their sales rose 1 per cent.