PC sales cross 7.3mn units growing 16%

MAIT, the apex body representing India’s IT hardware, training and R&D services sectors, today announced the findings of its Industry Performance Review for fiscal 2007-08. The total PC sales between April 2007 and March 2008, with desktop computers and notebooks taken together, were 7.34 million (73.4 lakh) units, registering a growth of 16 per cent over the previous year. IT consumption in 2007-08 was led by significant growth in notebook sales, which grew by 114 per cent, while purchases of desktop units grew by only a percentage. Western and Southern India recorded maximum growth in PC consumption at thirty–nine per cent each. PC sales are projected to touch 8.5 million (85 lakh) units in fiscal 2008-09.

Commenting on the findings of the study, MAIT Executive Director, Mr Vinnie Mehta said: “Notebook consumption has driven the PC market in India in 2007-08. With sales crossing a million units in the second-half of last fiscal, total sales of notebooks in 2007-08 surpassed 1.8 million (18 lakh) units growing one-hundred-fourteen per cent over the last year. Today, notebooks account for a quarter of the total PC market in the country, up from less than three per cent four years ago. With shifting consumer-preference in favour of notebooks over the desktop, this proportion will only get larger with time.”

He further added, “Although the sales to the large enterprises were less than expected, the overall consumption in the PC market was led by telecom, banking and financial service sectors, education and BPO/IT-enabled services, and the e-governance initiatives of the Union and the state governments. The southward trend in pricing for all IT products continued during the year due to technology reasons and also due to intense competition. Significant growth in the home market and steady consumption in the small and medium enterprises sustained the market in 2007-08.”

Western India followed by the South-led PC consumption accounting for thirty-one per cent and twenty-seven per cent of the market respectively. Sales in both the West and the South grew by thirty-nine per cent each over 2006-07. PC consumption in the east increased by ten per cent accounting for seventeen per cent of the market, a reflection of heightened IT activities in the region. The northern states witnessed a decline of thirteen per cent in PC sales, they accounted for 25 per cent of the market.

The bi-annual MAIT Industry Performance Review – ITOPs, conducted by India’s leading market research firm IMRB International is a survey of the domestic IT market, its potential and   trends. This round of the study involved face-to-face interviews with over twenty-five thousand respondents selected randomly across twenty-two cities in India. The MAIT-IMRB study was initiated in 1996-97 and encompasses five broad product segments — computers, networking products, printers, other peripherals and Internet connections. Apart from the half-yearly review, a supply-side estimation module has also been introduced to monitor industry performance every quarter, alternating with the half-yearly review.

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