The global meltdown is likely to cause concern for hardware players like HCL Infosystems, HP and Lenovo in India, as sales of notebooks and desktops in the consumer segment has significantly dipped, according to data compiled by a top analyst firm.

Though the fourth quarter (of the calender year) is regarded as the best sales quarter keeping the festive season in mind, this year the sales of notebooks have already gone down by 12% as compared to the third quarter. The quarter has also seen sales of desktops plunge by 20,000 units compared to the last quarter.

Around 2.68 lakh units of notebooks were sold in the third quarter of this year, and a total of 1.6 million units (including consumer and enterprise) were sold last year in India. As many as 1.5 million desktops were sold in the country in the second quarter of 2008.

According to industry sources, for the big vendors, the consumer segment will see a dip in sales in the present as well as the coming quarters. ?The economic downturn, rising dollar value and other components have led to the dip in sales of notebooks in India, mainly in the home consumer segment. Growth will be slower than expected but it is a temporary phenomenon,? commented a spokesperson from HCL Infosystems.

Though the sales are dipping and are expected to go down even further, analysts feel that it is unlikely that there will be any changes in the pricing of notebooks or desktops.

?Though sales are affected, we should not expect the prices to go down. The prices of components have gone up due to the rising dollar rates thus it is not possible for these hardware makers to reduce the prices. Moreover, in case of desktops, the margins are really low. Vendors like Hewlett Packard has already mentioned that there will not be any changes in pricing,? commented an analyst.

Also, due to the rising dollar, the price difference between desktops and notebooks have gone up from about Rs 10,000 to around Rs 13,000. This difference in pricing is driving home consumers to go for desktops instead of notebooks.

?Though desktop sales have gone down, for the last couple of months, we are observing people showing more interest towards desktops rather than notebooks, as it is possible to get a better version of desktop rather than a laptop, that too at the same price,,? commented the analyst.

The enterprise market has not shown much impact this year. However, it?s been predicted that in the coming year, the laptop and desktop segment will observe a dip in sales from the enterprise market as well.

Earlier this year, it has been predicted that the overall enterprise sale will go up to around 18% next year. However, due to the economic slowdown, it is expected that there will be a growth of around 14% in overall sales.

?Growth will be there, but it will be slower than expected. There will be a growth of around 37% in notebook sales in the enterprise segment next year rather than the earlier prediction of around 45%,? commented the analyst. ?Similarly, there will be a growth of around 6.2% in desktop sales, rather than around 8% growth,? he added.