Personal computer (PC) shipments surged to a record 4.5 million units during the July-September quarter of 2023 in India, recording a 14 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) increase, according to a report by International Data Corp (IDC).
This unexpected rise in shipments in an otherwise flat market was driven by brands boosting supplies as a result of the Centre’s brief import ban as well as in anticipation of festival season sales.
Desktops saw a significant increase of 19.3 per cent, while notebooks rose by 13.1 per cent.
- Also read: Global PC shipments down by 9% in Q3
“The consumer segment saw strong traction in 3Q23 after a challenging four quarters. In August, the Government of India declared a mandatory requirement of import licenses for PCs from October 30. Though this decision was later put on hold, vendors shipped significant channel inventory to avoid any risks of supply shortages or price hikes, not to mention ensuring sufficient supplies for festival season sales,” said Bharath Shenoy, senior research analyst, IDC India.
Government contracts, especially the education sector, experienced a notable growth of 117.5 per cent due to the Gujarat education project. E-commerce platforms also showed a resurgence, with a 26.4 per cent increase in the online retail channel, reversing a trend of declines from the past year.
“In the past few months, the PC market has seen a substantial push in the consumer segment and to some extent in the SME segment as well. The vendors are now focused on increasing their local assembly mix as government and education projects are expected to prefer locally assembled devices. While this might give a further boost to the government and education segments, a dearth of enterprise orders is a matter of concern as the enterprise segment is expected to decline by over 20 per cent on-year in 2023,” said Navkendar Singh, associate vice president, Devices Research, IDC India.
HP dominated the market, seizing a 29.4 per cent share, with leadership positions in both commercial (34.3 per cent) and consumer (25.9 per cent) segments.
Lenovo is second in market share, with a share of 17 per cent as its shipments fell 8.8 per cent year on year..
Dell Technologies followed at the third place with a 14.6 per cent market share, growing 3.8 per cent year on year.
Published on November 16, 2023
