Thaindian News

New Delhi, March 16 (IANS) Personal computer (PC) sales, including desktops and laptops, declined 19 percent in the October-December quarter as against the year-ago period, an industry lobby said Monday.
“The total PC sales between October and December 2008 were 1.4 million units, a decline of 19 percent over the corresponding period last fiscal,” the Manufacturer’s Association for Information Technology (MAIT) said.

The sales of desktops stood at one million units, while that of notebooks were 350,000 units during the quarter.

The MAIT expressed hope that sales would go up in the current quarter.

The overall PC sales for 2008-09 are expected to remain at the same levels of last fiscal at 7.3 million units, the MAIT statement said.

“The desktops sales recorded a decline of 15 percent, while sales of notebooks fell 30 percent over the corresponding period last year,” MAIT executive director Vinnie Mehta said.

He added that consumption in the PC market was led by telecom, banking, education and the e-governance initiatives of the central and the state governments.

Assembled desktops accounted for 39 percent of the total desktop sales in third quarter, while the remaining 61 percent desktops were branded ones.

Multi-national brands accounted for 48 percent of the market while the Indian brands accounted for 13 percent.

The consumption of servers witnessed a decline of 49 percent in the third quarter with only 21,000 units being sold, the statement said.

Printer sales also reported negative growth in the quarter.

Dot Matrix printer (DMP) sales fell 20 percent, while inkjet printer sales declined 12 percent.

Limited consumption in the enterprises led to 14 percent decline in laser printer sales also, MAIT added.