Low demand, rising dollar hit PC sales

Falling demands from household and corporate sector and a strengthening dollar has hit sales of desktops and notebooks in the country, registering a fall of 19 per cent in the October-December period, said MAIT, an IT industry body representing the hardware sector, on Monday.

In its quarterly industry performance review, MAIT -- Manufacturers Association of Information Technology -- said the sales of notebooks and desktops stood at 1.4 million in October-December period.

The sales of desktops stood at 1 million units while notebooks recorded a consumption of 350,000 units as buying sentiments took a hit amid global economic downturn.

"SMEs, retail, BPO/IT-enabled services and corporate sectors demonstrated restrain in IT purchase due to concerns of liquidity and general economic performance. The vibrancy in consumption in households was also muted due to concerns of job security. The strengthening of the dollar continued to adversely impact the industry margins and arrested the price drops in IT products," MAIT executive director Vinnie Mehta said.

The industry body expects the overall PC sales for 2008-09 to remain at the same levels as in the last fiscal, at 7.3 million units, due to the current macro-economic conditions.