On the back of steady demand from various industry verticals, sales of personal computers in the country are expected to cross 72.5 lakh (7.25 million) units in the current fiscal, Manufacturers' Association for Information Technology said.
In its bi-annual industry performance review, MAIT said that the sales of notebooks have outnumbered those of PCs in the said period. "Notebooks have emerged as a significant driver for the PC market in India in the first half of 2007-08. Sales of notebooks surpassed 680,000 units, growing 59 per cent over the same period last year, accounting for 21 per cent of the total PC market in the country," MAIT President Vinnie Mehta said, adding that notebooks accounted for less than three per cent of the PC market three years ago.
The buoyant mood in IT consumption was led by significant growth in notebook sales, which grew by 59 per cent, although consumption of desktops grew by only three per cent, the review said.
Although sales to large enterprises were less than expected, especially in case of desktops, the overall consumption in the PC market was led by telecom, banking and financial services sectors, education and BPO/ IT-enabled services and the e-governance initiatives of the Union and the state governments, he said. The review also said while the consumer segment registered a strong growth, demand from the business segment was not encouraging.
Households for the first time contributed 38 per cent of the total desktop market, registering an impressive growth of 72 per cent over H1 2006-07, it said. However, less-than-expected consumption in the business segment led to 17 per cent drop in desktop sales.
Businesses accounted for 62 per cent of total desktop sales compared to 77 per cent in the same period previous year. "Poor performance in the large enterprises, where sales fell by 31 per cent, pulled down the overall desktop sales, although consumption in the small enterprises grew by 16 per cent and in medium enterprises by 4 per cent respectively," MAIT said.
