In stark contrast, the unorganised assembled PC market rose from 30 per cent in 1996 to almost 52 per cent in 1998. Market share of Indian brands slipped to 20 per cent in 1998 from 30 per cent in the previous year in number terms and to 17 per cent from 26 per cent in value terms.

While the overall market size expanded, the share of brands in the organised segment dipped badly in number terms. Though the dip in MNC brands' market share was only two per cent, the market is now behaving more like other mature markets with there still being a scope for MNC brands to grow by another 10 percentage points, the survey said. Their present share is 28 per cent.

The survey points out that the Genuine Intel Dealer (GID) assembler channel increased its market share and now accounts for more than the combined marketshare of both MNC and Indian brands. The assembly market enjoys as much as 52 per cent of the total market.

Out of a total of 6.8 lakh PCs sold last year, assemblers accounted for 3.55 lakh units worth Rs 1,560 crore, up from Rs 833 crore in 1997, according to Skoch.

The findings are crucial for the industry as the second report of the national IT task force pertaining to hardware sector has recommended to give a major phillip to the ailing hardware manufacturing industry in the country by providing duty sops. The task force has said that incentives under its proposed Soft-Bonded IT Units scheme will cause the entire unorganised sector to shift to organised manufacturing. The report is likely to be taken up by the Union cabinet for approval later this week.

Interestingly enough, Contrary to the popular impression that assembled personal computers come with a cheaper price tag, the average per unit value is higher in the assembled market as compared to established Indian brands. According to the survey,the brands in the organised sector have an average value of only Rs 42,000 as against Rs 43,950 in the assembled segment.

The survey points out that the consumer is ending up picking a heavier configuration from the assemblers at an incremental price difference.Two years ago there were as many as 14 Indian PC brands in the market. The number stood reduced to just two last year, HCL and Zenith, whereas companies like Unicorp, PCL and PCS exited the domestic manufacturing business. Last year also saw the demise of several joint ventures in the sector, according to the survey.

According to Skoch managing director Sameer Kochar, the survey has followed a qualitative interview based approach encompassing the principals, distributors and channels and findings are based on the calender year.The survey has revealed that small and medium enterprises have emerged as the third largest market segment, with small office home office (SOHO) segment leading for 28 per cent market share, followed by the government sectorat 26 per cent.