According to International Data Corp. (IDC), India’s personal computer (PC) sales reached a record 4.5 million units during the July-September quarter of 2023, representing a 14% year-on-year (YoY) growth.
According to IDC’s newest study, the surprising gain in an otherwise flat market was driven by companies increasing supply in anticipation of festival season sales, as well as the government’s temporary import restriction in August followed by a fast policy reversal.
Desktops, notebooks, and workstations, which compose the conventional PC market in India, grew at varying rates; laptops increased by 13.1%, while desktops increased by 19.3%. The business sector remained stable, but the consumer sector increased by 26.3% over the previous year.
“The consumer segment saw strong traction in 3Q23 after a challenging past four quarters. In August, the government of India declared a mandatory requirement of import licenses for PCs from 30 October. 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.
The education sector grew by 117.5%, thanks in large part to the Gujarat education initiative. E-commerce platforms also experienced a resurgence, with a 26.4% increase in the online retail channel, reversing a year-long decline.
“In the past few months, the PC market has seen a substantial channel 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% on-year in 2023,” said Navkendar Singh, associate vice president, Devices Research, IDC India.
HP Inc. topped the market with a 29.4% share, leading in both the business (34.3%) and consumer (25.9%) categories. IDC attributes the company’s record-breaking consumer quarter to its aggressive inventory strategy.
Lenovo came in second place with a 17% market share, despite its shipments falling 8.8% year on year. It edged over Dell in the business sector but trailed Asus in the consumer market.
Dell Technologies, with a 14.6% market share, increased by 3.8% year on year. The company’s choice to reduce hoarding resulted in a modest decrease in market share while maintaining a solid channel inventory.
ASUS, which eclipsed Acer for fourth place with a 12.5% share, celebrated its most important consumer quarter, exceeding 500,000 units in the consumer market, owing to strategic inventory building.
Despite a strong year-on-year increase of 20.9%, Acer fell to fifth place. According to IDC, the company’s concentration on online channels led to its most significant consumer quarter on record.
