PC shipments could drop in 2009, says IDC

IT industry tracking firm IDC today said India could witness a drop in the overall PC shipments this year amid low demand from large corporates trying to cut cost as they grapple with the economic downturn.

"Calendar Year (CY) 2009 could still see a drop in overall India Client PC shipments. Judicious inventory management, coupled with marketing initiatives to explore the hitherto untapped 'long tail' of customers in the Indian heartland, could be the key to survival in a tough year," IDC India Country Manager Kapil Dev Singh said in a statement.

PC shipments to India remained flat in 2008 at 7.98 million units as against 8.06 million in 2007.

Desktop PC shipments dropped 10.1 per cent to 5.6 million in 2008, while notebook PC shipments recorded growth of 31.5 per cent on a year-on-year basis at 2.3 million units in the same year, IDC said.

"The measures announced by the RBI to free up credit are expected to revive demand from the (home and small & medium) segments and a moderate recovery in shipments may result during the second half of CY2009," IDC India Lead Analyst (Computing Products Research) Sumanta Mukherjee said.