PC sales sluggish across West

Mumbai

March 24th, 2008

According to Gartner and channel partners in the West, the PC industry is
witnessing sluggish business in the region. But Gartner reassured that it was
nothing to be worried about as the same situation was witnessed last year as
well. January, February and March saw low business but the market picked up in
June and saw a high till December. Government purchasing across the country
seems to have decreased which is the reason the market has also been sluggish as
per Gartner.

Talking about the market situation, Amarjit Singh Juneja, President, Amravati
Computer Dealers Association (ACDA) said, "In an upcountry region like
Amravati the problems affecting dealers are never ending. The government
purchases, which were expected in this quarter of January to March, have totally
been down. Partners were expecting much more business to come from the
government segment. Apart from this the exams season and tax cuts of salaried
employees is eating up the market. In Amravati load shedding also affects
business a lot."

However, Yogesh Thakkar, Director, Rhythm Electronics, Baroda said, "The
perception of people towards the IT market is wrong. Partners feel that the IT
market is down almost 50 percent but I feel the market is down only by 20
percent. I also think one of the reasons for this market being down is the lost
opportunity in terms of sales in companies."

Another dealer from Goa, Reuben Quadros, Director, Texel Computers said,
"In a market like Goa the market for PCs has gone down due to government
initiative and schemes like Cyberage wherein the government plans to give
computers to students at discounted rates. What we are now looking forward to is
selling computers to the government but that also does not seem to be happening
because of government policies here."

However, for Aness Khalfay, Director, Radiant Technologies, the market was
good. Anees said, "The expectations of dealers from the government segment
have increased and that's the reason for their achievements and sales not
matching each other."

Diptarup Chakraborti, Principal Analyst-Client Computing Market,
Asia-Pacific, Gartner said, "Channel partners don't have any thing to worry
about as it's just a market correction that takes place every year. Last year
also the market was sluggish during this period. We have still not got any
figures from any vendors about market been sluggish but the preliminary reports
suggest that market is sluggish."

Sharing the view the sluggishness was due to the government purchase
decisions, Chakraborti added, "We think the reason for this sluggishness is
the government purchasing which has gone down considerably. Usually desktops
comprise 75 percent marketshare of the PC industry and laptops comprise 25
percent share. As the government usually purchases desktops, the desktops market
looks good but. Due with the dip in government purchase, the market for desktops
has also been low."