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Installed base of PCs to cross 5 m on Dec. 20

Our Bureau

NEW DELHI, Dec. 14

THE total number of personal computers (PCs) in India will cross the landmark five-million mark in the third week of this month, according to Dataquest magazine.

According to the magazine, the five-million mark -- which is just over one per cent of the global installed base -- will be crossed on December 20.

The projection is based on a graded obsolescence model and assumes a maximum life cycle of 10 years for an installed PC.

It took 16 years for India to reach this level of a PC installed base since the first desktop was launched in the country in 1984 -- a Minicomp Neptune PC.

In 1996, the country achieved its first million in PCs. It is significant to note that India took only four more years to grow its PC base to the five-million level, a Dataquest statement said.

``The actual sales of PCs since 1984 adds up to 6.1 million, but many of those PCs have been discarded due to obsolescence, and no longer figure in the installed base,'' the magazine said.

In 1984, a mere 1,200 desktops were sold in the country. With the advent of the Internet in 1995, PC sales achieved a rapid growth, reaching the one-million annual figure in 1999.

Currently, annual PC shipments hover around 1.7 million. This will cross five million in 2004, Dataquest said.

The cost of the PC has come down considerably from the past, which has also fuelled sales. When the PC was launched in 1984, it cost well over Rs 2 lakh and in the late 1980s, the price was around Rs 1 lakh.

While the price was around Rs 50,000 in the mid-90s, today, an MNC brand with multimedia costs only around Rs 35,000.

The Indian PC industry has also witnessed the rise and fall of many a domestic brand.

Prominent players who fell out include DCM-DP, Usha, PCL, Sterling and Unicorp, though many Indian brands like HCL today account for nearly half of the branded PC sales in the country.

With a growth of 45 per cent every year, the number of PCs in the country will cross 10 million by January 2003, the magazine said.