PC sales down by 19% in OND 2008

NEW DELHI, INDIA: MAIT announced the findings of its Quarterly Industry Performance Review for the quarter October-December (OND) of fiscal 2008-09.

The total PC sales between October and December 2008, with desktop computer and notebooks taken together, were 1.4 million (14 lakh) units, registering a decline of 19 percent over the same period last fiscal.

The sales of desktops stood at one million (10 lakh) units while notebooks recorded a consumption of 0.35 million (3.5 lakh) units. The industry is hopeful that the sales will better in the January-March quarter, however, given the current macro-economic conditions and the buying sentiment in the market; overall PC sales for 2008-09 are expected to remain at the same levels as in the last fiscal at 7.3 million (73 lakh) units.

Commenting on the industry performance, Vinnie Mehta, Executive Director, MAIT said, “With less than expected sales in households and enterprises, desktops recorded a decline in consumption by 15 percent, while sales of notebooks fell by 30 percent over the same period last year. Among the verticals, consumption in the PC market was led by telecom, banking, education and the e-governance initiatives of the union and the state governments. SMEs, retail, BPO/ITeS and corporate sectors demonstrated restrain in IT purchase due to concerns of liquidity and general economic performance. The vibrancy in consumption in households was also muted due to concerns of job security. The strengthening of the dollar continued to adversely impact the industry margins and arrested the price drops in IT products.”

As per the MAIT-IMRB study, the assembled desktops—the smaller lesser known regional brands and unbranded systems, accounted for 39 percent of the desktop sales in Q3 2008-09, while the proportion of the branded desktops was 61 percent. MNC brands accounted for 48 percent of the market while the Indian brands accounted for the rest 13 percent.

With establishments deferring IT purchases and consolidating the existing infrastructure, the consumption of servers witnessed a decline of forty-nine percent in the third quarter of 2008-09 on year-on-year basis. 21,000 units of servers were consumed in Q3 2008-09.

The performance of the printers market reflected that of the PCs. Consumption of dot matrix printers (DMP) declined by 20 percent in Q3 2008-09 compared to the same period last year. While consumption of DMP has now been confined to certain niche applications such as POS, passbook printing, ticketing, billing etc, even here it faces stiff competition from other non-impact printers.

Sales of inkjet printers declined in OND 2008-09 over that of the last year by 12 percent. While households and small businesses have been the traditional drivers of consumption of inkjet printers, these have been losing out to the laser printers especially in the small businesses. Subdued consumption in the enterprises led to decline in consumption of laser printers by 14 percent.

Likewise, poor consumption in the establishments and the households resulted in decline in the UPS market by 36 percent on an annual basis in the third quarter of 2008-09.