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Rediff.com  » Business » PC sales dip 7%; register negative growth for 1st time

PC sales dip 7%; register negative growth for 1st time

Source: PTI
July 14, 2009 18:09 IST
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The economic slowdown has taken a toll on the consumption of personal computers, including desktops, notebooks and netbooks, in the country, with the sales for the first time declining by seven per cent in 2008-09, a report said.

Sales of PC declined by seven per cent to 67,90,000 units from 73,40,000 units in 2007-08, an annual review by the Manufacturers Association for Information Technology said.

"IT consumption in 2008-09 was severely impacted, in the second half of the fiscal, by the slowdown in the Indian economy," MAIT executive director Vinnie Mehta told reporters.

He said, "Consumer sentiment was subdued due to uncertainty in the economy in 2008-09 which impacted the consumption of IT in the country."

"While consumption in the first-half of the fiscal was satisfactory, less than expected offtake in sales in the second-half pulled down the overall growth into the negative quadrant," he added.

However, compared to the desktops, the notebook segment was more impacted due to the slowdown.

"Impact on consumption of notebooks was most pronounced as growth plummeted to a negative 17 per cent compared to a high of one-hundred-and-fourteen per cent in the previous year," he added.

Sales of desktops declined four per cent at 52,70,000 units. The net book appeared to be better insulated from the prevailing market sentiment with sales of netbooks exceeding 70 thousand units in fiscal 2008-09.

However, the silver lining is that the PC market is on a revival path. "With business sentiment gradually gaining momentum, PC consumption in fiscal 2009-10 is expected to  cross 73,00,000 units, registering a seven per cent growth," Mehta said.

He added, "Although the sales growth in both the enterprises and the households headed southwards, the overall consumption in the PC market was led by telecom, banking and financial service sectors, education and the e-governance initiatives of the Union and the state governments.

While, verticals such as BPO/IT-enabled services, manufacturing, retail and households, which traditionally account for significant proportion of the IT market, were very conservative in their IT spends in 2008-09.

Multinational brands continued to gain strength in India.

The MNC brands accounted for 51 per cent of the total desktop market in 2008-09, registering a growth of eight per cent over the forty-five per cent share last year.

The proportion of Indian brands fell from 22 per cent to 18 per cent, registering a decline of 22 per cent. Assembled desktops and unbranded systems witnessed a degrowth of 10 per cent in absolute units accounting for 31 per cent, down from 33 per cent, of total desktop sales in 2008-09.

Sales of servers declined two per cent in FY 2008-09.

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