Trade association MAIT said that PC sales in India fell by seven percent for the year between April 2008 and March 2009, the first decline in hardware sales ever.
Sales of desktops, notebooks and netbooks amounted to 6.79 million units with IT sales impacted by the slowdown in the Indian economy.
MAIT said that sales of notebooks was the most pronounced as sales fell by 17 percent in the year, compared to growth of 114 percent in the previous year. Sales of desltops declined by four percent.
MAIT Executive Director Vinnie Mehta said: “A silver lining in the second half of 2008-2009 was the emergence of a new product category, the netbook, that took the fancy of the consumers. This new form factor appeared to be better insulated from the prevailing market sentiments.”
In the corporate sector, sales were led by telecom, banking, financial service, education and governmental e-governance.
The decline in the second half of the year 2008-2009 is demonstrated by this MAIT chart below.
| Percentage of total consumption |
||
| Category | H1/2008-2009 | H2/2008-2009 |
| Desktops | 55% | 45% |
| Notebooks | 62% | 38% |
| Servers | 61% | 39% |
Multinational brands accounted for 51 percent of the total desktop market in the year, and the proportion of Indian brands fell from 22 percent to 18 percent. Household usage of desktops fell by 18 percent. Corporations and large organizations account for 49 percent of notebook sales.
Sales of servers fell two percent in the year, but Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad, which are the major IT centres, showed a decline of a staggering 78 percent in server consumption.
MAIT estimates that out of a total population of over one billion souls, only 60 million have an Internet connection. That’s way behind emerging market competitor China. It has an ambitious goal to have 500 million Internet users and 100 million broadband connections by 2012. MAIT president Ravi Svaminathan said: “We need early roll out of 3G and WiMAX networks.”
