One PC for every 30 Indians

The India PC market witnessed a seven percent quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) growth
in shipments in Q1 first quarter of calendar year 2009 over fourth quarter of
2008, according to IDC's Asia Pacific Quarterly PC Tracker.

A total of 1.67 million units of client PCs were shipped during the
January-March quarter of 2009. Desktop PC shipments registered a sequential
growth of nine percent QoQ while notebook PC shipments recorded a growth of
three percent QoQ. Overall PC shipments in the commercial segment were buoyed by
demand from the government, education and banking (nationalized banks) segments.

The government sector had the potential to spend more in Q1 CY2009. Some of
this spending is expected to resurface after the formation of a new government,
post the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections.

In spite of the overall subdued market, the total installed base of PCs in
India surged past the 36 million units mark. The country now has one personal
computer for every 30 Indians. This represents a significant improvement over
March 2007 installed when the country boosted of one computer for every 50
Indians.

The top three players in the India client PC market during Q1 CY2009 were HP,
HCL and Dell in that order.

“Though the YoY 'growth' rate of India client PC shipments dropped 19 percent
(Q1 CY2009 versus Q1 CY2008), this was an improvement over the previous quarter,
indicating the market has perhaps already bottomed out,” said Sumanta Mukherjee,
Lead Analyst-Computing Products Research, IDC India.

“With a number of significant government-funded education and e-governance
projects lined up in the coming quarters, a lot will hinge on how quickly the
new government settles down to business,” he added.