MNCs make inroads into personal computers market

Monday, November 17 1997

MNCs make inroads into personal computers market

T M Arun Kumar

Mumbai, Nov 16: Various multinational personal computer (PC) manufacturers have substantially increased their market share in the fiercely competitive PC market at the cost of leading Indian PC companies.

According to an International Data Corporation India (IDC India) survey, in the first quarter of 1997-98 (April-June) three of the top five brands were that of the multinationals. Last year (1996-97) Compaq, which was placed fourth, was the only multinational brand to figure in the list of top five PC vendors.

Compaq topped the list of PC vendors in the first quarter of this year with a market share of 13.3 per cent, a 100 per cent increase over its previous year's 6.6 per cent.

Other leading international brands like IBM and Digital, which had failed to make it to the top five list last year, have also registered a substantial increase in their market shares in the first quarter of this year. IBM was placed second with a share of 9.4 per cent and Digital, with a share of 3.6 per cent, was placed fifth.

On the other hand, leading Indian brands such as Wipro-Acer and HCL have seen their market share erode considerably. HCL, which last year was placed second with 11 per cent, has seen a 50 per cent fall in its market share to 5.5 per cent. Similarly, Wipro-Acer's share has fallen from 7.9 per cent to 4.1 per cent.

PCL, which was the largest PC vendor last year with a market share of 13.4 per cent, has not been able to make it to the top five list this time. Also Zenith Computers, which last year was placed fifth with a 5.6 per cent share, bowed out of the top five club.

Industry analysts attribute this trend to the twin factor of the substantial cut in import duty during the recent budget and instability in the Indian companies. ``HCL is just recovering from its split with Hewlett Packard and PCL till recently was facing delivery problems after it had booked more orders than it could deliver. This coupled with the aggressive marketing of the multinationals has resulted in the international brands gaining ground,'' said an analyst.