Intel and IMRB recently concluded a study, which is considered to be one of the largest studies conducted in India, on the penetration of personal computers in India. The study that was conducted across 82 cities, 28 million households in urban India now have a PC. This figure indicates that the number of PCs have doubles with the number going up from 19% to 38%.
Some of the important points to note in the results are:
- Smaller tier cities contribute significantly to growth in PC market
- Youth drives the category & is the torch bearer for PC adoption in India
- PC buyers seek value while buying PCs and do not buy cheap
- Notebooks become more desirable and bring new users into the fold
The study reveals that an important factor in this changing demand for PCs can be attributed to youth in India. This segment of consumers have started to “demand” for computers at an early age, thus increasing the PC sales.
Mobile Vs PC
So the PC sales have gone up, but can we compare the PC to the almighty mobile? Compared to the increase in PC sales, mobile subscribers increase by almost the same number, give or take a few, in a single month. Moreover, this study by Intel and IMRB is solely based on urban India. As opposed to this, mobile penetration is apparent not just in the urban areas, but the rural areas as well.
The main reason behind obtaining a computer today is to access the internet. However, will the user really want to buy a computer when the same can be accessed via his / her phone? Considering that the mobile is, well mobile, you can access the internet pretty much anywhere. With new reports suggesting that 3G subscribers will cross 107 million users in India by 2015, there is definitely no competition between the mobile and the PC.
With mobile phone companies like Nokia, amongst others, focusing on rural areas, mobile growth will only increase in the country. Considering the rapid growth of the mobile device, as compared to one in four households in urban India having a PC, there will be (if not already) four mobiles in one household in ALL of India. What do you think?
