|
Industry association MAIT says that the total number of desktops and
notebooks sold in FY 2007-08 was 73.4 lakh. This was a growth of 16 percent over
the previous year. Out of this, desktop growth was negligible but notebook sales
went up by 114 percent. And MAIT's prediction is that next year, about 85 lakh
machines will be sold. More than 25 percent of the systems sold were laptops.
Frankly, this is very slow growth for a country with size and potential of
India. Consider China, which already has more than 45 crore people with PCs for
a population of 100 crore plus people. While India is a major global software
hub and a big outsourcing destination with a huge middle class population,
millions of small and emerging enterprises, and thousands of colleges and
schools, China is still a bigger buyer of PCs. And at less than one crore
computers sold every year, India could take some 30 years before it is anywhere
close to where China is today.
One interesting conclusion from the MAIT survey is that the western and
southern India recorded maximum growth in PC sales. Surely cities and towns in
North and specially East need to pull up their socks. Just like the level of
industrialization defined the economic and social progress of states in the 70s
and 80s, the amount of computerization will determine this in the coming years.
 |
|
Ibrahim Ahamad |
Experts believe that while the prices of PCs and other access devices in
India are one of the lowest in the world, high-quality Internet and broadband
infrastructure is urgently needed to make sure that PC sales pick up.
Serious and long-term efforts need to be made to ensure that PC penetration
ramps up fast. And not just the vendors but even the solution providers and
channel partners will have to come together to make this happen. Page(s) 1
| 
