2.7 m PC sales in 2003/04: MAIT

NEW DELHI: Despite the slowdown that saw many companies reduce their IT spending, PC sales in India grew by 37 percent to touch 2.3 million units in 2002-03. The growth is particularly remarkable because PC sales had gone down by 11 percent in 2001-02 over the previous fiscal. The numbers are part of the MAIT’s annual performance review report of the IT industry.

According to the MAIT report, that was announced at a press conference in Delhi today, the buoyant IT consumption witnessed in the first half of 2002-03 gained greater momentum in the second half resulting in the current growth. The apex body representing the hardware, training and R&D services sectors of the IT industry in the country expects that the trend of robust growth will help the industry post 18 percent growth in FY 2003-04.

It also expects the total PC sales to cross 2.7 million units during the same period.

The survey which has been carried out by MAIT in association with IMRB attributed the turnaround largely to the increased IT consumption by verticals like telecom, banking and financial services and manufacturing and IT-enabled services. The government also initiated some major e-government and digital-divide projects that is believed to have spurred consumption levels. The MAIT report also validates the market sentiments about the B and C class cities.

According to the report, almost 35 the percent of total PC sales came from smaller towns and these cities.

PC purchase in the top four cities accounted for 53 percent of the total PC market growing by 30 percent in absolute terms. Consumption in the business segment grew by 52 percent while sales to the household segment grew by 16 percent. Within businesses, the larger, medium and small businesses grew by 54 percent, 43 percent and 24 percent respectively.

SEC A continued to dominate the market with 45 percent market share in 2002-03. SEC C, which emerged as a consumer only in 2001-02, accounted for 24 percent sales in the households market.

The study reveals that Indian PC brands grew by 88 percent to grab 26 percent from its earlier market share of 19 percent while the share of MNC brands fell from last year’s 35 percent to account for 28 percent of the overall market. The assembled PCs undoubtedly dominated the market with 46 percent of the total sales.

In terms of the processor configuration PC sales in 2002-03 were dominated by P4, which accounted for 59 percent of the market share, followed by PIII accounting for 26 percent.

The most popular operating system was Windows 95/98 accounting for 86 percent of the installed PC base, while Linux accounted for only 2 percent. In servers, Linux and other non-windows based operating system accounted for 11 percent, the rest being windows based.

The sale of printers grew by 7 percent compared to 2001-02. Laser printers recorded a growth of 54 percent while sales of inkjet printers grew by 14 percent.

Notebook sales grew by 14 percent clocking a CAGR of 12 percent over the past six years. Large business segment accounted for a major proportion of notebook sales at 55 percent, while medium business accounted for 27 percent and small businesses for 18 percent. The server market grew by 11 percent in 2002-03 with the top four metros accounting for 78 percent of the total server sales.

According to the report, networking products witnessed an impressive growth –while Network Interface Cards (NIC) posted 50 percent growth, hubs sales grew by 151 percent. However, consumption of modems showed sign of decline and posted a negative growth of 11 percent. Also, the UPS market that had been growing at a CAGR of 33 percent over the past six years, showed signs of slowing down with 24 percent in growth during 2002-03.

The report also suggests that the number of active Internet entities in the country increased to 1.43 million in March 2003–an increase of 10 percent over March 2002. Dial-up remained the most commonly used means of accessing the Internet among businesses with 63 percent of the business subscribers using it. Cable, leased line and DSL accounted for only 12 percent, 8 percent and 1 percent respectively of total access means.

(CNS)