Logitech moves to TV peripherals as assembled PC market shrinks

Logitech, estimated to have nearly half of India’s PC peripherals market, has said it will focus more on living room products such as TV peripherals as its market for assembled PCs shrinks.

The company, which refuses to share its India-specific numbers, said it has achieved sales of around 4 million pieces of ‘pointing devices’ or mice annually.

According to analysts like IDC and Gartner, Indians buy around 10 million PCs a year, of which around 60-65% are desktops.

However, the market share of both desktops and assembled PCs have fallen over the last three years, hitting peripheral-makers hard.

Switzerland-based Logitech, which produced its first mouse in 1982, agreed that the move towards laptops and branded PCs has shrunk its addressable market, but overall the boom in the market has helped preserve volumes.

The PC market has gone up from around six million per year three years ago to 10 million per year at present.

Subrotah Biswas, head of Logitech for India and South West Asia, said, “Three or four years ago, the assembler market was hovering around 50-55% of the overall desktop market. With another 15-20% from the replacement market, it used to be 70% of the desktop market.”

Today, he pointed out, assembled PCs have fallen to around 35% of the total desktop market even as the total desktop market has fallen from around 75-60% of the total PC market.

“We expect the number of laptops sold in India to achieve parity with the number of desktops by either the December 2011 quarter or the March 2012 quarter,” he said.

The Indian PC peripherals market does not have any third party research or numbers.

However, Biswas said nearly four million mice and almost an equal number of keyboards comprise nearly half of the market in India.

The remaining market comprises audio products, webcams, headsets and gaming peripherals. Biswas said Logitech is now focusing more on bringing out products for television sets and cell phones.

“We expect a proliferation of internet-enabled devices such as TVs, media players and set-top boxes. From 40 million per year in 2008, their number is expected to reach 135 million in 2013,” he said, adding that new products such as universal remotes and audio docks would be launched to tap the opportunity.