Dinosaur PCs being cannibalised by new-age devices

The ubiquitous desktop PC, which largely powered India's IT revolution will soon be overtaken by new-age tablets this year.

Changing lifestyles, growing preference for wireless mobility and increasing demand driven by the growing young population are hastening the exit of PCs, The Times of India reports.

Sales of desktop PCs plunged 26 per cent in 2013-14 and a further 16 per cent dip in volumes this year is expeced.

Tablets, on the other hand, are projected to continue their rapid growth, rising 27 per cent to finish the year with sales of 4.26 million units, data compiled by industry body MAIT and market research firm IMRB has shown.

The projection that tablet sales would overtake desktops is hardly surprising considering the growing preferences of Indians for new-age devices that could be used on the move.

Cheaper and faster data connections and costs nearly half that of desktops, had fuelled the frenzy which is expected to sustain in the years ahead. Higher notebook sales had also contributed to the sharp decline in the demand for desktops.

The growth of tablet sales has been nothing short of phenomenal considering that only three years ago, total sales of the devices stood at 90,000 units when desktops were selling as many as 6 million units.

Meanwhile, the Indian IT hardware industry is expected to clock a growth in the range of 25-30 per cent to $15.54-16.16 billion in the current fiscal, according to industry body MAIT.

According to the annual MAIT Industry Performance Review (ITOPS) conducted by research firm IMRB International, the IT hardware market is projected to have touched $ 12.43 billion in 2013-14.

MAIT president Amarn Babu told PTI that the sector had immense growth potential and MAIT was hopeful that the rise in the market would be in the range of 25-30 per cent.

He added, considering the low PC penetration in India (at 9.5 per cent) against that of  Russia's 57.1 per cent, Brazil's 45.4 per cent and China's 35.4 per cent, the country had tremendous scope for growth.

According to Biswapriya Bhattacharjee, IMRB international group business director BIRD, (Business & Industrial Research Division) the growth in the market was also fuelled by spending by small and medium businesses (SMBs).

He added, that establishments had shown impressive growth largely driven by increase in adoption of technology products among SMBs.

He added that this clearly indicated that SMBs were seeing technology as a way to increase business growth.