PC sales up 16% in 2011-12, but fail to meet forecast

Given the muted demand and with scarcity of raw materials increasing the prices of computers, only 10.8 million notebook and desktop computers were sold in the country in 2011-12 — 8.5 per cent less than the 11.8 million units projected by the hardware industry body Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology (MAIT).

According to the industry performance report released by MAIT on Tuesday, the sales of personal computers (PCs) grew by 16 per cent in 2011-12 over those in 2010-11, even as the industry failed to meet the forecast. In 2010-11, 9.3 million units had been sold in the domestic market.

“The industry experienced a very nervous business environment in 2011-12. The year was plagued by problems like hard disk shortage and inflation, besides weakening of the rupee,” president Alok Bhardwaj said.

Though MAIT had projected a growth of 26 per cent for 2011-12, factors like currency fluctuation, flood in Thailand (affecting supply of hard drives) and tsunami in Japan pulled sales down by about a million units, he added.

For 2012-13, MAIT estimates PC sales to grow 15 per cent. “The current economic slowdown is reflected in the sentiments. The PC industry is expected to grow 15 per cent to sell 12.4 million units in 2012-13,” he said.

In the total PCs sales, desktops accounted for 6.7 million units (a growth of 11 per cent over the previous year). The sales of notebooks and netbooks stood at 3.7 million units (up 26 per cent) and 0.28 million units (down 11 per cent), respectively. The share of the consumer segment in the total sales was 56 per cent, while the remaining 44 per cent was accounted for by enterprises.

In 2011-12, sales of other devices like tablet PCs had started cannibalising the overall PC sales. Consumers preferred alternative devices over netbooks and this was reflected in the 11 per cent drop from the previous year in the number of netbooks sold.

Though sales of desktop and notebooks to large enterprises increased, those to small enterprises declined 32 per cent. The sale of notebooks to medium enterprises fell 17 per cent.

The sales of printers declined five per cent during 2011-12 from those in 2010-11 to stand at 2.96 million units.