Best Year For PC Sales!

It’s difficult to believe, yet true! The current financial year will see PC

sales touching the magic figure of two million and that will be the best figure

ever achieved for PC sales in the country. The earlier highest figure was 1.9

million PCs achieved in 2000-01, while only 1.67 million PCs were sold during

the last financial year.

The data comes from MAIT, India’s premier organization for hardware,

training and R&D services. The figures for the first half of the year show

that the growth over the first half of previous year is at 18 percent, while it

is 10 percent over the second half of 2001-02.

That’s double-digit growth for sure which the country has been getting used

to with the exception of the previous financial year when the general economic

slowdown dealt a body blow to PC sales. Now, the figures for the first half of

the current financial year, come as clear indicators to the gradual recovery

that the economy is witnessing.

Enthused by the PC sales in the first half of the year, MAIT has now revised

its PC sales projections for 2002-03 from the earlier 15 percent to 20 percent.

There is every chance that this projection will come true because JFM is usually

considered a good quarter for PC sales especially from government sectors where

egovernance initiatives are driving computerization.

However, the growth in the first half of the financial year has not come

primarily from government sectors but from telecom, banking and financial

services, manufacturing and IT-enabled services. So, in JFM, the purchases by

government departments to make use of the budgeted funds for the financial year,

should bolster PC sales further.

This push from the Central and State Governments would help to make up for

the slackness experienced in PC sales in the OND quarter which did not meet the

expectations of vendors and partners. Not even the home segment could salvage

sales in OND.

In fact, according to the MAIT survey, sales among households declined by one

percent compared to the figures of last year, while sales grew by 24 percent in

the business segment. Which means, regional brands and unbranded systems which

accounted for 48 percent of the PC sales, have penetrated the business segment

to a greater extent, which is bad news for national as well MNC brands.

The MNC brands have been the hardest hit whose sales declined from 36 percent

in the first half of 2001-02 to 30 percent in the first half of the current

financial year. MNCs will have to do some serious soul-searching with respect to

price-parity and service issues vis-a-vis regional brands and assembled systems,

if they are serious about capturing the lost market share.

The Indian as well as MNC brands will have to also think a fresh about their

strategy for B and C-class cities because the regional brands and assembled

systems have made a strong mark in these cities which have accounted for 36

percent of the total PC sales.

sylvesterl@cmil.com