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Follow UsThe year that went by can be called the 'year of
maturity' for the computer peripherals industry, which grew by 45% over the
previous year. Piggy-backing on the PC boom in the country, the growth,
particularly in the small office home office (SOHO) segment, the Rs 2069 crore
computer peripherals industry (1999-2000) moved into a phase of maturity with
users graduating from entry level to sophisticated and updated levels of
technology.
Printers, monitors and hard disk drives, each contributed to
about 30%, making up 90% of the overall value of the computer peripherals
industry. The internet was one of the strongest factors that led to the shoot-up
in volume, and a demand for more power, in these products. Increased volume of
data and the imperative need to back up critical information propelled the
growth of storage devices in a big way in the country. The impact of color on
computer peripherals such as monitors, printers and scanners was also quite
significant during the last fiscal.
Yet another notable development during 1999-2000 was the
recognition of the role of channels in the business of computer peripherals
distribution. As a result, second-tier distribution companies with regional
focus started moving to become national players with presence in major metros
and cities across India. An interesting observation during the last fiscal was
that the southern region began to contribute almost the same revenue as the
north and the west, despite being a much smaller market.
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Peripherals Market Trends |
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| Category | 1999-00 | 1998-99 | Value Growth % | ||
| Value (Rs crore) | Share % | Value (Rs crore) | Share % | ||
| Impact Printers | 370 | 45 | 307 | 47 | 21 |
| Inkjet Printers | 215 | 26 | 151 | 23 | 43 |
| Laser Printers | 235 | 29 | 199 | 30 | 18 |
| Total Printers | 820 | 40 | 657 | 46 | 25 |
| Others | 1,250 | 60 | 777 | 54 | 61 |
| Total | 2,070 | Â | 1434 | Â | 44 |
| Others include HDDs, keyboards, scanners, UPSs/CVTs, external storage, etc. |
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As usual, the quarter-wise performance indicated similar
patterns, except for the January-March quarter, which saw a slight letdown. The
April-June quarter saw more buying, while July-September and October-December
quarters were average. The January-March quarter was affected by the earthquake
in Taiwan, which led to a temporary short supply of components and products,
such as motherboards and chipsets. This also resulted in price hikes in a few
product categories. During the same quarter, the government announced a uniform
sales tax for several states. Non-adherence to such a tax structure by some
states also impacted the relatively low performance of the industry during the
quarter.
Like in the bandwidth arena, which is seeing an increasing
convergence between IT and telecom, peripheral technologies too converged,
bringing together multiple functions in a single product. And awareness about
these products was created in the market with the launch of such products as
scanner-cum-copier, printer-fax-scanner-copier, digital fax sender and NetTV.
Printing fine
Printers were one of the most exciting product categories in the country,
witnessing an overall growth of about 25% over the previous fiscal (value) and a
35% unit growth. An estimated total of 729,000 printers were sold in the Indian
market during 1999-2000. Inkjets saw a high growth rate of 43% over the previous
fiscal in terms of revenues and a 41% unit growth, which resulted in sales of
about 319,000 units. These sold at a total value of Rs 215 crore, with more than
50% being absorbed by the home and SOHO segment. This indicates a 50% connect
rate between PCs and printers in SOHO. The growth of consumables like ink
cartridges in revenue terms overtook the inkjet printer revenues, with vendors
slashing prices of the printers. The inkjet consumables alone registered a total
of Rs 250 crore last year.
Top 3 Impact Vendors
(Rs crore)
Top 3 Laser Vendors
(Rs crore)
As against the anticipated negative growth, the impact
printers maintained a limited positive growth of about 21% over the previous
fiscal (value) and a unit growth of 19%. About 308,000 DMPs were sold in the
Indian market during the last fiscal at a value of Rs 370 crore. The market
witnessed a shift from the nine-pin, 136-column models to the 24-pin 136-column
models due to major price drops and new product launches in the latter category.
It proved to be a good year for laser printers too with as
many as 102,000 printers being shipped out at a value of Rs 234 crore. This
marks a 18% revenue growth and a 80% unit growth over the previous year. Almost
80% of the total number of lasers were entry-level models. Network laser
printers, a promising product category, did not translate into major sales
despite the hype and awareness, mainly because of high prices.
In the coming fiscal, the entire peripherals market is
expected to behave in a manner similar to the printer categories. The DMPs will
continue to grow by 9-10% this year too, while inkjets will pick up volumes and
eat into the DMP share. Epson and Canon, both of which created a lot of
visibility in the market through the media, are also expected to vehemently
challenge HP’s marketshare during the current fiscal. Barring some price drops
in the laser category, the prices of inkjets and DMPs, that have already reached
the threshold, are not expected to go down any further. Specialty printers such
as photo-printers, mobile printers and internet-ready printers are being
targeted by vendors for the Indian market, but only the coming year will decide
the acceptance of new technologies and products.
Monitors: Big picture
Monitors witnessed a good growth in unit terms over the previous year at a value
of Rs 597 crore. The 14-inch color monitor became the industry standard and
contributed to about 80% of revenues of the overall market for monitors in
India. The last fiscal did not see major price changes, though the gap between
the 14-inch color and 15-inch color narrowed considerably. This was the reason
for a growth of above 40% growth in the 15-inch monitor category. The 17-inch,
19-inch and 21-inch categories also grew considerably in revenue terms, but not
much in unit terms–mainly due to the relatively lower base. The internet,
multimedia, graphics and other applications have been driving the use of the
higher-end monitors in the country.
|
Top 3 Inkjet Vendors |
||
| Units | Value (Rs crore) | |
| HP | 207,405 | 141 |
| Epson | 70,542 | 45 |
| Canon | 18,000 | 16 |
| Total | 319,000 | 215 |
Hard disk drives
Directly related to the PC market, hard disk drives (HDDs) recorded a healthy
growth of about 25% in the last fiscal at a value of Rs 243 crore. Seagate was
clearly number one among HDD vendors, followed by Samsung. Quantum, perched at
third position, faced rough weather due to short supplies of its drives in the
market. Disk capacities kept doubling and it was no surprise that the 4GB disks,
which were at the high-end in 1997-98, became entry-level products by
April-September 1999. Disk capacities of 8GB came into demand during the last
fiscal.
Scanners
A truly fast growing segment, scanners sales valued Rs 29 crore for the last
fiscal. Initially, scanners that were considered an office product saw
phenomenal success in the SOHO segment, thanks to the internet and the
increasing need to scan documents. The competition between Umax and HP
intensified further during the fiscal. The two maintained the number one and two
positions, respectively. Canon, Epson and Acer too launched their scanners in
the market last year, and this is an indication of the expansion and competition
in the market.
CD-ROMs/DVDs/FDDs: Shining bright
With CD-ROM drives now a standard feature of all PCs sold in the country, the
segment registered a robust 50% growth in the Indian market. Along with the
popularity of the CD-ROM, media such as write-once CD-Rs and rewritable CD-RWs
also saw phenomenal growths in the market. The last year also saw the
introduction and absorption of digital versatile disks (DVD-ROMs) in the
country. With prices of DVD-ROMs spiraling down, their demand is expected to
grow exponentially during the next year. The CD-Rom drives, FDDs, Zip drives and
other storage devices sold in the country during the last year stood at Rs 331
crore.
Keyboards: Shifting keys
With a huge replacement market to its credit–the PC to keyboard ratio is
1:2–it was not surprising to see the shipment of close to 1.4 million
keyboards in the country. This reflects a 45% growth for the segment over the
previous year at a value of Rs 48 crore.
Other peripheral products such as UPSs, motherboards and plotters also saw a
healthy growth of 60% over the previous year. Closely linked to the fortunes of
the PC industry, the peripherals industry thrived on the PC boom of 1999-2000.