PC industry reports 1 per cent growth in first-half 2009-10
13 Feb 2010
The Indian personal computer (PC) industry has reported a one per cent increase in sales in the first half of the fiscal 2009-10 (April-September 2009) at 37.1 lakh units, on the back of sluggish offtake as demand from enterprises or business customers were largely subdued.
The PC industry, though expects sales to improve in the second half, primarily driven by an improved business sentiment. According to Vinnie Mehta, executive director, Manufacturers' Association for Information Technology (MAIT), the industry aims to reach the targeted 7 per cent growth for the fiscal.
Total PC sales, including desktops, notebooks, net books, servers and IT peripherals for fiscal 2010 would cross 73 lakh units on a 7 per cent growth over previous year.
Desktop sales fell 11 per cent to 26.1 lakh units for the April-September 2009 period even as sales of notebooks and netbooks surged 43 per cent to 11 lakh units in the same period last year.
Mehta said though sales growth remained subdued in the enterprise segment, the overall demand in the PC market came from telecom, banking and financial services and education sectors as well as household segment.
Verticals such as BPO/IT-enabled services, retail and government were conservative in their IT spend during the period. However, the household segment clocked a 40 per cent growth. Household spending accounted for 51 per cent of the total sales. This was the highest-ever as against 42 per cent in October-March 09 and 34 per cent in the year-ago period. Enterprises contributed to 49 per cent of the total sales in H1 fiscal 2010.
"The first half also witnessed deviations from the downward trend in pricing for IT products as the dollar continued to be significantly stronger compared to the rupee. This was mitigated, to an extent, by price drops due to technology reasons and also due to intense competition," Mehta added.
MAIT is expected to submit its wishlist to the commerce ministry to streamline the governments' processes for procurement of various computer hardware and peripherals. Revenue from government procurement was approximately Rs2,500 crore last year and is expected to rise by 50 per cent by the year-end.
MAIT has initiated talk at the director-general, supply and disposal (DGSD) on evolving common standards on inspections, payment, rate contracts, auction, reverse auction, price evaluation and commercial evaluation, according to Vinnie Mehta. He was speaking to the Financial Express.
He added that his organisation having 96 vendors, would set up a task force to develop a charter on framing a process that would apply uniformly throughout the country for IT hardware procurement.
"The DGSD, under the commerce ministry, has already issued a note to all the state governments to air their opinions on having a uniform system for procurement", Mehta said. With a uniform system in place, vendors would be able to carry out their businesses in an environment of homogenous pricing and contract rates, he added.
