Indian PC shipments rise by 30%

The number of Indian computer shipments during 2006 grew by 30% to cross 4.6 million, according to statistics released by advisory services firm IDC.

Economic Times reports notebooks rose by 168%, while commercial desktop sales rose 15%. Consumer desktops rose by 33% in the April 2005 to March 2006 period, while desktop PCs rose by 21% as a whole.

HP continued to be the market leader with a share of 18% followed by HCL at 14% while Lenovo has a 9% market share.

PC firms aim to increase PC usage in the developing world with a new flexible payment programme to lower the initial cost of buying a computer.

Reuters reports Microsoft is leading a group of technology companies in offering the first-ever "pay-as-you-go" computer in Brazil, India, Mexico, Russia and China over the next several months.

"We`re working with all these partners to expand the market to help bring PCs within reach for hundreds of millions of families within emerging markets," said senior VP at Microsoft Will Poole.

Notebooks are expected to almost completely migrate to dual-core processors by 2007, as Intel and leading makers jointly push up the proportion of dual-core models shipped starting in the second half of this year, according to industry sources.

Intel plans to boost the proportion of dual-core notebooks to 90% of the total by the fourth quarter of this year and to 95% in the first quarter of next year, according to sources at Taiwan notebook makers.

Digi Times reports that Taiwan notebook makers are positive that the share of dual-core notebooks will pick up in the second half of this year as Intel has targeted, said the sources.

UK-based distributor, VIP Computers, has signed a partnership agreement with Acer to supply the vendor`s Travelmate notebooks to its UK reseller base, reports Vnunetwork.

Sally Carron, marketing manager at VIP,said, "We are now an official partner for Acer notebooks. This means that our resellers can compete with High Street prices and offer real value for money to their customers."

Semmy Levit, UK country manager at Acer said: "As a distributor, VIP adds value because it sells to markets that we do not reach with our standard distribution channel. We are feeling very confident about this partnership."