Personal computer sales recorded a 36 per cent growth in the first half of the current fiscal, touching 23.4 lakh units over the same period a year ago on the back of strong corporate consumption and lower entry price.
Encouraged by the trends, the industry association MAIT has upped the projection for 2005-06 to 47 lakh units from the earlier 42.5 lakh units. The sub-Rs 10,000 PCs, which made their debut in H1, saw up to 10,000 units being sold, MAIT said.
Notebook sales also grew by leaps and bounds with 16,000 units sold in the first half, registering a 94 per cent increase in the growth accounting for 13 per cent of the total market. Notebooks also found their ways into homes expanding from business segment.
While business segment improved by 55 per cent, accounting for 78 per cent of the total PC consumption, household sector witnessed a negative growth of 5 per cent over the same period a year ago touching 510,000 units, Vinnie Mehta, executive director, MAIT said.
The assembled PCs segment occupied 34 per cent in H1 from 39 per cent in the preceding H1 due to aggressive pricing and better reach of branded players, Mehta said, adding the share of Indian brands grew to 31 per cent while MNC brands accounted for 35 per cent of the total market.
On the processor configuration, PC sales in the H1 were dominated by Pentium 4 which accounted for 81 per cent, followed by Pentium III with 2 per cent marketshare.
Other alternative processors like AMD, Cyrix and Celeron accounted for 17 per cent, which occupied maximum hold over the household sector with 27 per cent.
In terms of operating system on desktops, 66 per cent of the establishments had Windows 95/98 while only 2 per cent preferred Linux. In case of servers, 5 per cent of the stablishment had Linux and another six per cent had non-Windows based operating system. 10 per cent operated on Wnsowns NT, 22 per cent had Windows 95/98 and 26 per cent had Windows 2000 out of a total 22 lakh (Rs 2.2 million) business establishments.
Printer sales grew 43 per cent in H1 with record sales in laser printers which registered a growth of 159 per cent. Together B & C class cities accounted for 70 per cent of the total PC sales which is a 44 per cent growth in absolute terms. Top four metros accounted for 30 per cent total sales.
The server market registered a growth of 56 per cent in H1 while the networking market grew by 115 per cent. Modems -- dial up and modem cards posted a negative growth of 21 per cent.
The UPS market grew by 16 per cent and consumption of monitors increased 23.4 lakh units with a growth of 40 per cent in H1.
"The big growth in PC sales can be attributed to increased consumption by industry verticals like telecom, banking and financial services, manufacturing, retail, BPO/IT companies. The southward trend in pricing including sub-Rs 10,000 PCs added to it," Mehta said.
He, however, added that industry needed to focus its attention on localisation and creating value-for-money solutions for price sensitive segments like home which has witnessed a slowdown in buying sentiments
PC sales revenue up at Rs 4,452 crore
Revenues from personal computers grew by 27 per cent to touch Rs 4,452 crore (Rs 44.52 billion) in the first half of the current fiscal, compared to the same period a year ago riding on the buoyant growth in PC sales.
As per the findings of industry association MAIT, notebook sales revenue was also up by a huge 75 per cent although at a small base of Rs 748 crore (Rs 7.48 billion), while that of servers touched Rs 545 crore (Rs 5.45 billion), up 48 per cent.
In the printers segment, Laser printers posted highest revenue growth of Rs 354 crore (Rs 3.54 billion) in April-September period, a rise of 133 per cent while revenues from dot matrix printers touched Rs 202 crore (Rs 2.02 billion) and Inkjet printers at Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion), it said.
Monitors' sales revenue in H1 was at Rs 1,253 crore (Rs 12.53 billion), a growth of 38 per cent.