82.5 lakh PCs sold in 2008-07

According to Dataquest the strong surge in the domestic IT market kept the
momentum going for the Indian IT industry. The latest research stated that FY
2007-08 was memorable for two reasons-the rupee upstaged the dollar, and the
domestic market for the first time in Indian IT's journey grew faster than the
exports market.

An accelerated 34 percent growth in 2007-08 FY '08 as compared to 27 percent
in FY '07, took the total domestic IT market to Rs 99,018 crore in FY '08
reversing the decade-old trend of export industry growing faster than the
domestic market.

The overall Indian IT industry grew 29 percent in FY '08 to report revenues
of Rs 2,88,810 crore. Exports, contributed largely by software and services,
accounted for nearly two-thirds of the industry at Rs 1,89,792 crore, grew at 27
percent as compared to a 35 percent growth recorded during 2006-07.

Pradeep Gupta, Chairman, CyberMedia said, “Despite the downturn and the
challenging economic climate, the top IT services companies managed to keep
growth up and their margins intact. This shows the amazing resilience of the
Indian IT powerhouses.”

Within the domestic IT market the hardware industry, comprising per­sonal
computers, servers, peripherals, networking and storage products contributed one
half-Rs 49,589 crore. And the rest was contributed by domestic IT services Rs
26,756 crore, which is 28 percent growth over the previous year and software Rs
12,179 crore, which is 27 percent growth over the previous year.

It further stated that BPO services (voice only) contributed Rs 8,600 crore
(65 percent growth) and training Rs 1,894 crore.

Driven by the need for mobility, over two million notebooks were sold,
registering a growth of 59 percent, growing at twice the rate of desktops.
Notebooks now form nearly one-fourth of the 8.25 million personal computers sold
in the year.

Dataquest attributes the handsome showing by domestic hardware segment to the
spread of computing to smaller towns and cities of India as well as the rise in
small businesses. The desire to save energy on IT appliances has led many users
to switch to LCD monitors. This resulted in an impressive 68 percent growth in
LCD monitor sales.

Dataquest estimates the market size with Indian rupee as the primary
currency. In FY '08, for the first time, the rupee actually accelerated sharply
against the dollar, resulting in very higher growth rates when calculated in
dollar terms.