According to Manufacturing Association for Information Technology’s (MAIT) half yearly review, PC sales are projected to cross 72.5 lakh units in 2007-08, jump of almost 11 lakh units from the 2006-07 total sales of 63.4 lakh units.

“In the first half of 2007-08, notebook sales grew by 59 per cent over the same period last year. Laptops now account for 21 per cent of total PC sales while it accounted for only three per cent of PC market four years ago,” MAIT Executive Director Vinnie Mehta said here on Tuesday.

Consumer segment

The PC penetration — number of computers per 1000 population — has increased to 25 from last year’s figure of 22 per 1000 computers. MAIT said while consumer segment registered strong growth, demand from business segment was not encouraging

While homes accounted for 49 per cent of notebook sales, in the business segment top four cities accounted for 14 per cent of sales. The next four cities that include Bangalore account for 10 per cent of notebook sales while the remaining 14 cities contributed for 76 per cent of sales. 

In desktop segment, multinational brands are growing with 48 per cent market share whereas both Indian brands and assembled PCs are showing a declining trend with a respective market share of 17 and 35 per cent. To maintain buoyancy in the hardware market, MAIT has called for status-quo on tax structures for IT products.