Hardware manufacturers in India are taking the path of self-constraint to battle the phenomenon of demand slump. Over the past 10-11 months, IT vendors across the country have witnessed sales plummeting to record figures with the onset of global economic slowdown. Among the vendors, hardware vertical has been worst affected.

In this current situation, hardware manufacturers are concentrating more on extending the life cycle of their current products instead of going for new launch. Therefore, the past few months have seen very few manufacturers developing new hardware products.

Reflecting the current outlook of the hardware market in India, Gartner, a leading global research firm, has said that the server market has declined by almost 15% in the first quarter of 2009 from the final quarter of 2008.

Consumers and businesses shying away

According to Rajan Darekar, MD of Span Controls, a mid-sized hardware manufacturing unit in Pune, Maharashtra, “Both consumers as well as businesses dramatically reduced their purchase of print devices and other electronic devices, following the global economic slowdown. They either delayed or completely cancelled their orders with hardware manufacturers.”

However, with sales not encouraging enough to prompt manufacturers to launch new products, vendors are taking alternative routes to sustain.

Focus on cost management

T Angchuk, Proprietor of Palas Software Private Limited, a mid-sized thermal printer manufacturer in New Delhi, comments, “With consumers and business organisations affected due to credit crunch and tight budgets, new sales are also not picking up. In this scenario, hardware manufacturers are focussing more on reducing and managing costs effectively.”

It is in the first half of 2009 that a combined 1.1 million units of printers, copiers and multifunctional products (MFPs) were shipped from India. However, this is a 12.7% decline over shipments during the first half of 2008.

Anirban Guha