On the back of buoyant consumption by industry verticals and corporates, personal computer sales during the first quarter ended June 30, 2003 crossed 640,000 units, a growth of 26 per cent over the year-ago period, according to the Manufacturing Association of Information Technology.

The improved business sentiment in the market has also led to the upward revision of the hardware association's first-half sales projections to over 14.2 lakh (1.42 million) units from 12.1 lakh (1.21 million) units estimated earlier.

However, the share of assembled PCs comprising the lesser-known regional brands and unbranded systems rose to 65 per cent of the PC sales during the April-June quarter, with the MNC brands accounting for 19 per cent, while the Indian brands cornered the remaining 16 per cent.

According to MAIT's quarterly review, the buoyant IT consumption witnessed in 2002-03 continued undiminished in the first quarter of this year as the PC sales crossed 640,000 units.

"With robust growth prospects, the IT market is expected to grow at 18 per cent in 2003-04 over the previous year to cross 27 lakh (2.7 million) units," it said.

MAIT attributed the strong growth of PC sales in Q1 to increased IT consumption by industry verticals and corporate sectors like telecom, banking and financial services, manufacturing and IT enabled services.

During the quarter, Notebooks and Laptops posted 8 per cent growth over the corresponding quarter as sales touched 14,784 units, MAIT said, adding servers registered 25 per cent increase year on year at 28,046 units.

Smaller towns accounted for 37 per cent of the total PC sales, while the top four cities accounted for 46 per cent of the total sales.

Commenting on the performance, Vinnie Mehta, executive director, MAIT, said, "The growing proportion of assembled and unorganised PC market is of immense concern to us and to ensure that IT reaches the grass root levels in India, there is a pressing need to bring down the prices of IT products."