NEW DELHI - The less affluent sections of the Indian society seem to be out-buying the well-off classes when it comes to purchasing computers, according to an IT hardware industry lobby report released Tuesday.

The biannual report, released by the Manufacturers Association for Information Technology (MAIT), said the number of desktop buyers from the top socio economic class (SEC A) declined 42 percent in the first half this fiscal, while the SEC C category reported a 56 percent growth in the period.

The growth for the SEC B category was 6 percent.

In the city-wise segment, 31 percent of the total desktop sales (2.91 million units) took place in the top eight metros, while a whopping 69 percent were sold in the rest of the country.

‘We are seeing high growth pockets in tier I and tier II cities and a step which we as an industry and individual manufacturers have to take is how to induce demand and promote IT usage in these cities,’ Ravi Swaminathan, vice-president of MAIT and also president of HP India’s personal computers division, told IANS.

The figures are encouraging when compared with the 2005-06 period, when 48 percent of the nearly 2.3 million desktops sold in the first six months were in the metros.

The report also said notebook sales went down 32 percent in the April-September 2008 period from the second half of the previous fiscal.

Notebook sales had maintained successive quarterly growth in the past few years.

The overall personal computer sales to business during the period grew 24 percent in the first half this fiscal with large enterprises and medium enterprises growing 26 percent and 41 percent, respectively.

‘SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) penetration in IT has certainly increased. We do have challenges but overall we have seen that SMEs are growing and we have to see how we can enhance the use of IT and introduce affordability,’ said Swaminathan.

Rajesh Kurup, business director at IMRB international, which undertook the survey on MAIT’s behalf, said previously large corporations used to dominate PC sales but lately the atmosphere has put budgetary constraints on them. ‘Small and medium size businesses hold the key for further growth,’ he told IANS.