Q1 PC sales cross 5 lakh units: MAIT

MAIT, in its first ever effort to map quarterly trends in the IT industry,

has announced that the desktop PC market grossed 5.08 lakh units for the AMJ

quarter of 2002-03. 63 percent of that sold in the first-half of 2001-02.



The market has shown signs of recovery, with sales in almost all product
categories amounting to two-thirds of that sold in the last fiscal. 2001-02 had

been marked with severe recessionary trend in the Indian economy, which had

adversely impacted the hardware market.

With the buying sentiment in the market improving, PC sales in 2002-03 are

expected to grow by 15 percent crossing 19 lakh units. Last year had recorded

1.65 million units of PC sales.

In the first quarter of 2002-03, the desktop PCs, notebooks, dot matrix

printers, laser printers have registered sales of close to two-third of their

sales during the first half of 2001-02. Products like servers, inkjet printers,

and UPS have registered around 50 percent of the sales during H1/ 2001-02.

Typically, the JAS quarter is characterized by higher sales than AMJ, thus

the sales of the IT products in H1/2002-03 is expected to comfortably exceed

that in H1/ 2001-02, showing definite signs of market recovery.

Commenting on the findings of the study, Vinnie Mehta, Executive Director,

MAIT says, “With signs of economic recovery this year, the IT market is

expected to perform better. However, to ensure that IT reaches grass root levels

in India, there is a pressing need to bring down the prices of IT products.”

MAIT has recommended bringing down all local levies — excise duty and sales

tax to this effect. “The hardware industry, on the other hand needs to

seriously contemplate developing products for the Indian market,” he adds.

DQCI NEW BUREAU