NEW DELHI: MAIT has announced the findings of its Industry Performance Review
(ITOPs) for FY 2001-02. The indicative survey was carried out in alliance with
market research outfit, IMRB.
According to the report, the desktop PC market for the year 2001-02 has
registered a 11 per cent slump grossing 16.7 lakh units over the previous year.
PC sales had clocked a growth of 34 per cent in the FY 2000-01 over that of
1999-2000. The IT industry is expected to grow at 12 per cent in FY 2002-03,
with projected PC sales of 19 lakh units.
The most interesting find of the study is that 30 per cent of total PC sales was
accounted for by Class B and C class cities - a phenomenal growth of 106 per
cent, especially given the fact that the overall PC market has pegged a 11 per
cent negative growth. (In the last fiscal smaller towns had accounted for only
13 per cent of the overall PC sales). Likewise, notebook sales grew by 200 per
cent in small towns whereas sales to the four metros declined by 28 per cent.
Smaller towns accounted for 9 per cent of the total server sales, growing 4 per
cent.
IMRB, senior vice president and country manager, Bhupendra Mathur said that
because the base figures were abysmally low in the smaller cities to begin with,
the huge percentage rises however does not translate into as high unit sales.
Mathur added that this growth could be attributed to a focus shift on the part
of the marketing departments right from the manufacturer to the distributor
level, whereby sensing a lull in the bigger cities they explored the smaller
towns for potential market pockets. Another factor, according to Mathur, that
resulted in the growth of the PC market in the smaller cities was the
penetration of Internet, especially in the form of cyber cafes to the smaller
towns.
As per the MAIT-IMRB study, the assembled PCs – the smaller lesser known
regional brands and unbranded systems – accounted for 46 per cent of the PC
sales in 2001-02. The proportion of the assembled PC sales shrunk from 53 per
cent in the previous year - a negative growth of 22 per cent. However, the MNC
brands maintained a market share of 35 per cent, up from 27 per cent in 2000-01
despite registering a negative growth of 17 per cent. The Indian brands
accounted for 19 per cent of the market as contrasted to 17 per cent in 2000-01.
The study reveals that PC sales, both to the business segment and to the
households declined by 11 per cent as compared to the sales in the last year. In
the second half of 2001-02, the market recovered, but not sufficient to result
in positive growth. The business segment registered a growth of 7 per cent and
the households 12 per cent over the first half, thus taking the overall growth
to 8 per cent. In the FY 2001-02, the business segment continued to account for
78 per cent of the market. Within businesses, the larger businesses (over 50
employees) and the medium business segments (between 10 and 50 employees)
witnessed sales fall by 10 per cent and 18 per cent respectively. The sales in
the small sector (less than 10 employees) also declined by 18 per cent.
In terms of the processor configuration, PC sales in 2001-02 were dominated by
P-III 550 MHz, which accounted for 46 per cent of the market share, followed by
P4 accounting for another 24 per cent. In H2/2001-02, 28 per cent of PCs sold
were P4 in contrast to 19 per cent in H1. The households segment also witnessed
an increased consumption of P4 in H2/2001-02 amounting to 27 per cent of the
sales in the households. This reflects the increased need for faster processing
speeds for Internet and its applications. Sales of processors with lesser speeds
e.g. P-III (up to 450 MHz) and P-II based systems witnessed a fall in the market
share.
Printer sales, according to MAIT-IMRB estimates, grew marginally by 1 per cent
compared to that in 2000-01 - sales of Dot matrix grew by 6 per cent; sales of
Laser printers declined by 15 per cent while that of Inkjet printers remained
flat. Large establishments that accounted for 36 per cent of the Dot-matrix
sales registered a positive growth of 57 per cent. Medium sector accounted for
33 per cent consumption and grew 6 per cent, while small sector witnessed
negative growth of 17 per cent. Sales of Line Printers declined by 30 per cent
registering 3,885 units in sales down from 5,540 units in 2000-01. Dot-matrix
printers accounted for 41 per cent of the market share; Inkjet printers for 52
per cent and Laser printers for 7 per cent.
Server sales recorded a negative growth of 21 per cent in fiscal 2001-02, with
sales in the four metros declining 23 per cent and 21 per cent in the next 4. In
Inkjet printers also the same trend was witnessed. Sales to smaller towns
accounted for 41 per cent of the total sales, growing 91 per cent, while sales
to top 4 cities dropped by 33 per cent and in the next 4 by 23 per cent. Sales
of UPS to smaller towns also witnessed a significant growth of 23 per cent
although total UPS sales in FY 2001-02 declined by 6 per cent.
Releasing the findings of the study, MAIT executive director, Vinnie Mehta said
that the hardware industry, like any other has been hit by the global economic
situation and bearish market trends. However, he added that the future looked
optimistic. Commenting on the findings of the study, S Devarajan, president,
MAIT said, "To ensure IT reaches grass root levels in India, we need to
seriously contemplate developing products for the Indian market… the
government needs to facilitate and encourage this process by creating simple
mechanisms for quick access to low-cost finance for product development and
pilot production, with only the technology, materials, and components as
security, regardless of whether the product development is in the public or
private sector."
ITOPS is a syndicated end-user based study on the IT hardware market conducted
by the eTechnology Group of IMRB. This has been an annual exercise of MAIT since
1996-97 and for the last three years the study has been conducted on a bi-annual
basis, as well. The recent edition was based on over 14,000 face-to-face
interviews with end-users, with data projected to the 'all India urban market'.
The MAIT-IMRB study involves data collection after the 'last mile' that the
product travels, i.e. from the premise where the product is finally installed.
The study encompasses five broad product segments - computers, networking
products, printers, other peripherals and Internet.
PC sales up 106% in non-metros
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