Manufacturers' Association for Information Technology (MAIT), the apex body representing the hardware, training and R&D services sectors of the IT industry in India, announced the findings of its quarterly industry performance review for the quarter October-December of FY2005-06. PC sales- desktops and laptops taken together crossed 1.1 million units. Sales of notebooks and peripherals witnessed robust growth. With strong macro economic conditions and upbeat market sentiment, sales in fourth quarter are expected to be buoyant. Sales in FY 2005-06 are expected to cross 4.4 million units.
IT consumption in the country continued to be dominated by industry verticals and corporate sectors such as telecom, banking & financial services, manufacturing and IT-enabled services. The consumption in these segments were largely driven by investments in software, solutions and other enterprise products. Apart from these traditional sectors, high consumption was also witnessed in SMEs, education, retail and other computer centric small enterprises. In addition, the trend of increased PC purchase in households, smaller towns and cities as witnessed over the last few quarters, continued to be steadfast. Aggressive pricing by the PC vendors has also helped improve the PC penetration, especially in the households and the SME segments.
MAIT's Industry Performance Review - ITOPs, conducted by the leading market research firm IMRB (Indian Market Research Bureau), is bi-annual and aims to address the hardware sector’s efforts to manage the business environment, gauge the market potential and consumer trends. The module to monitor the Industry performance every quarter alternates with the half-yearly review, using the supply side estimation model involving data collection from the top IT vendors and leading channel players. This round of the quarterly study (October-December 2005-06) involved data collation from the major vendors and around 400 resellers/vendors in the top sixteen metros in India. The quarterly review covers the market size estimation for Desktop PCs, Notebooks, Servers and Peripherals - Printers and UPS.
As per the MAIT-IMRB study the Assembled PCs - the smaller lesser known regional brands and unbranded systems, accounted for 38% of the PC sales in Q3/2005-06, while the proportion of the branded PCs was 62%. MNC brands accounted for 34% of the market while the Indian brands accounted for the rest 28%.
Vinnie Mehta, executive director, MAIT, said, "With steady growth in IT consumption across households, SMEs and smaller cities, it is imperative that the IT industry build knowledge, competence and solutions to address the growing requirements of such markets. In order to sustain the interest of consumers in IT, there is a need to enhance the value proposition of IT compared to other avenues of lucrative returns. Towards this end, MAIT has launched Digital LifeStyle, a series of IT events - exhibitions and seminars to be held in smaller towns and cities across the country targeting the end consumers. To begin with, the event will be held in at least ten towns and cities in 2006."
MAIT
