Computer sales growth dips in second quarter

Calcutta News.Net
Thursday 11th September, 2008 (IANS)

Personal computer (PC) sales in India grew 8.1 percent in the second quarter of 2008 over the corresponding period last year, but down from the 10 percent first quarter growth, a technology industry tracker said Thursday.

'The subdued sentiment derived its signals from high petroleum prices, rising inflation, political uncertainty in the last quarter and news of the impending US economic slowdown,' Kapil Dev Singh, country manager of market information provider IDC India, said in a statement.

Desktop PC sales came down 2.4 percent to 1.51 million units in the second quarter of this year against sales of 1.55 million units in the corresponding period of last year.

Notebook PC sales, however, grew at a robust 51.2 percent to 574,000 units in the second quarter of this year, against sales of 380,000 units in the corresponding period of last year.

Consequently, overall PC sales - desktops plus notebooks - grew 8.1 percent to 2.1 million units, compared to 1.9 million sold in the corresponding period of last year.

In the first quarter of this year, overall PC sales had grown 10 percent to 2.1 million units against sales of 1.9 million units in the corresponding period of last year.

'With the Indian economy expected to grow only at 7.5-8 percent in the April 2008-March 2009 fiscal, the second quarter performance was affected by cautious PC buying,' Singh said.

During the quarter, in the overall PC market, US hardware giant Hewlett Packard (HP) retained the top spot with a market share of 18.7 percent, followed by Indian hardware major HCL at second spot with 10.8 percent share, while US computer maker Dell moved up to third spot with a 8.9 percent share.

In the first quarter of this year, HP topped with 17.6 percent share, followed by HCL with 10.2 percent share, while US computer maker Lenovo took the third spot with 8.2 percent share.

In terms of desktop PC sales, HP retained its top position with a market share of 13.9 percent, followed by HCL and Dell in second and third spots, respectively during the second quarter of 2008.,

In terms of notebook PC shipments (sales), HP retained the top spot with a market share of 31.2 percent in the second quarter, 2008, Dell moved to second spot while Acer retained the third spot, the statement said.

The notebook segment sales were driven by low-cost notebook PC offerings by both Indian and global vendors.

'The growth of these upgradeable notebook PCs will be driven to a large extent by the penetration of broadband connectivity and availability of appropriate content,' said Sumanta Mukherjee, computing products research analyst of IDC India

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