Thaindian News

New Delhi, July 30 (IANS) Despite the economic slowdown, printer sales in India grew one percent to 1.61 million units last fiscal as compared to the year before, an IT hardware manufacturers’ lobby said Thursday.
“The total printer sales between April 2008 and March 2009, with dot-matrix, ink-jet and laser-jet printers taken together, were 1.61 million, registering a growth of one percent over the previous year,” the Manufacturers Association for Information Technology (MAIT) said in a statement.

However, sales of UPS declined 6 percent to 1.51 million units last fiscal from 1.62 million in 2007-08.

Consumption of Network Interface Cards (NICs) grew three percent, while that of modems and hubs declined 44 percent and 35 percent, respectively.

“PC (personal computer) and peripherals consumption in 2008-09 was adversely impacted, especially in the second half of the fiscal by the slowdown,” MAIT said.

The industry lobby said the overall printer sales in 2009-10 would likely cross 1.74 million units, registering an 8 percent growth. However, sales of UPS are expected to remain flat.

“Consumer sentiment was subdued due to uncertainty in the economy in 2008-09 which impacted the consumption of IT in the country,” said MAIT executive director Vinnie Mehta.

“While consumption in the first half of the fiscal was satisfactory, less than expected offtake in sales in the second half pulled down the overall growth into the negative quadrant.”