While IDC has been extremely bullish on the home PC segment calling it "saviour of the PC industry" in fiscal 1998, MAIT has attributed only 18 per cent of total PC sales to this sector. As per IDC, however, the sector grew at a whopping 89 per cent overshadowing the government and large business sectors with a 23.7 per cent market share (over 2,00,000 units).

"MAIT has said 49 per cent of shipments were from assemblers. Most of these PCs go to homes -- this itself shows the home PC segment must have been quite large," said Aditya Pant, manger (supply-side research) at IDC.According to Pant, the validity of IDC's study is also borne out by the increasing number of vendors who are launching PCs for the home market. Multinational vendor Hewlett-Packard, which announced a strategy for the home segment in January 1999, has improved its market share, said Pant.

The IDC study attributed the success of the top three vendors in the branded PC market to their initiative in targeting the home, small business and offices segments. "Both HCL and Zenith did well because of a good presence in the fastest growing segments of the market. Low price-points together with promotional blitzkrieg enabled these vendors to capture the imagination of the home buyer, who still shows a very strong tilt towards local assemblers," the IDC study said.

HCL had the largest share by units of 8.4 per cent followed by Compaq and Zenith at 7.9 per cent and 7.0 per cent respectively. Nearly all vendors also have tie-ups with internet service providers for internet-ready home PCs. Zenith has a tie-up with VSNLwhile H-P has opted for Satyam Infoway. Raj Saraf, MD of Zenith Computers and member of MAIT, said home was one of Zenith's biggest markets and the internet one of its biggest drivers. On the 7.6 per cent growth attributed by MAIT to the home segment, he said the percentage did not necessarily imply the home PC market was small. "You also have to take into account last year's figures," he said. The MAIT study has been conducted by Indian Market Research Bureau and the user segments researched include business establishments and affluent households in 16 cities.

The IDC and MAIT have also come up with different figures for total PC shipments in fiscal 1998. According to MAIT the shipments crossed 1 million units at 1,027,190 units, while IDC pegged it at 8,44,550 units or Rs 4,009 crore. In PC servers, the growth was 27 per cent at 17,352 units as per IDC and 35,900 units according to MAIT.