India’s IT hardware industry grew 24% in FY 2015

MAIT, the apex body representing India’s IT hardware, training and R&D services sectors recently announced the findings of its Annual Industry Performance Review for the financial year 2014-15. According to the findings, the overall size of Indian ICT Hardware Market Stands at $15.87 billion, showing  a growth of 23.98% over the previous year. This segment includes PCs, Desktops, Phablets (Screen size  5 inch and more), tablets (screen size greater than or equal to 7 inch), smartphones, servers,  and peripherals. However, the total PC sales (desktop computers and notebooks) stood at 106.2 lakh units, registering negative growth of 10% over the last fiscal.

Commenting on the findings, Amar Babu, President of MAIT, said, “Phones are driving all the growth but PC is showing degrowth.  The only way to arrest this degrowth is to look at ways to increase PC penetration in Indian households. One way is by enabling infrastructure, providing low-cost loans and discount vouchers for purchasing PCs.  We also see a ray of hope for PC growth in future on account of some of Digital India initiatives which aims at having a digital Infrastructure as a utility to every citizen, governance & services on demand, and digital empowerment of citizens.”

Phablets made a huge growth of 527% over last year to do 50.8 million sales and is expected to grow by around 65% in the next fiscal year. They are seeing fast emerging and information consumption, especially in the larger cities. Multi-utility of the product coupled with the ease of usage and handling makes it a preferred device over the other devices.

Anwar Shirpurwala, Executive Director of MAIT says, “Government programs have been instrumental in driving the growth of notebook and also its decline. In a country where affordability is an issue, it is important for Government to provide the additional impetus to the adoption of PCs, thereby, driving overall development of the society. The bigger screen of phablets make it an extremely desirable product as it bridges the gap of a multi-utility device and an entertainment device. However, it is only up to the 5.5 in screen phablets that have found acceptance. Role of tablets as a ubiquitous device for consumers is fast diminishing. On the other hand desktop PC continues to de-grow and  found a niche amongst households in small towns and rural.”

Biswapriya Bhattacharjee, Vice president, BIRD, IMRB International said, “The study is based on over 42,000 face-to-face interviews with end-users spread over 35 cities with data projected to the ‘All India Urban market’ and 41 SCRs (socio economic regions) to estimate the ‘All India Rural market. It involved data collection after the ‘last mile’ that the product travels, i.e. from the premise where the product is finally installed’.