PC market grew only 5 percent in 2012-13: MAIT

The tablet is eating into the personal computer (PC) and laptop market pie, with the PC market growing only 5 percent in 2012-13, the Manufacturers' Association of Information Technology (MAIT) said Wednesday.

"The overall IT hardware industry scenario seems to be on a conservative side with most of the markets posting either a muted growth or decline. The year 2012-13 has been the year for tablet PC with consumers preferring tablet over PC as their replacement.

"The combination of basic functioning of a PC coupled with affordability is turning the tide favourably towards tablet PC. The industry is hopeful that the overall PC sales for 2013-14 will reach around 12.11 million units, registering a modest growth of 8 percent," MAIT president J.V. Ramamurthy said here.

The total PC sales between April 2012 and March 2013, combining desktops, notebooks and netbooks were at 11.31million units, registering a growth of five percent over the last fiscal. The sales of desktops stood at 6.77 million units, registering a growth of one percent. Notebooks and netbooks taken together recorded a consumption of 4.41 million units, growing 10 percent over the last year.

Tablets registered a phenomenal growth of 424 percent for the second consecutive year, MAIT said.

MAIT executive director Anwar Shirpurwala said the prime concern now is low adoption of IT and the association will now look into measures to boost this. "In another couple of months, we will be coming up with the measures which can be taken to boost adoption of IT in society."

Around 21 percent of tablet PC purchasers were first-time buyers. The focus will be on penetration of laptops and desktops in the rural areas, he added.