Indian personal computers (PC) sales is expected to achieve 14% growth at 12.71 million units in 2012 against the projected sales of 11.15 million units during 2011, according to IT market researcher, CyberMedia Research. Notebook PCs will drive the sales with double digit growth. The launch of mass market tablets will also aid the sales of PCs in India.
?The future growth of the India PC market will be driven by adoption of new form factors such as LED monitors in the commercial desktop space, net-books, ultra lightweight notebooks and tablet computers in the portable space,? stated Anirban Banerjee, associate vice-president, research and advisory services, CyberMedia Research.
Since the first tablet launch in India last year, the country has seen numerous companies entering with their tablets?Cisco?s Cius, RIM’s Blackberry Playbook, Samsung Galaxy Tab and now Reliance 3G Tab. ?For tablets to become a common man’s device, the data usage tariffs for 3G services need to be brought down even further,? Anirban said.
The first-half of 2011 witnessed subdued PC sales in India due to lower offtake by the government, public and private sector and low consumer demand. It is to be noted that IDC, in its latest PC sales report, had seen a sequential decline of 4.2% to 2.44 million units for the second quarter of 2011. Gartner recently reported a rise of 2.5% in PC sales in India to 2.5 million units for second quarter of 2011 as compared to last year. Experts at CyberMedia expect July-September 2011 quarter PC sales to improve with strong demand from the education sector and beginning of festive season. The combined installed base of desktop and notebook PCs in India is estimated to have crossed 52 million units as of 2010. At present, there is one computer for every 25 Indians.
However, PC sales to the corporate sector may get affected due to uncertain economic environment in the US, Europe and Japan. The leadership of the PC market is going to get impacted due to HP?s announcement to hive off PC business.
?HP’s strategic rethink of spinning off its $40 billion personal systems group may be attributed to the rapid commoditisation of the PC business in absence of any major differentiator, in the last few years. While this trend impacted every player in the market, HP’s PC division recorded a significantly lower operating margin compared to its other businesses in the year ended July 2011,? stated Sumanta Mukherjee, lead analyst, computing products, IT peripherals and channels, CyberMedia Research.
?HP also failed to leverage its $1.2 billion acquisition of Palm in 2010. An unsuccessful attempt to promote devices based on WebOS not only denied HP a leadership position in the smart-phones and the tablets markets, it also seems to have underlined the need for a strategic shift. Given this background and the fact that HP is still the global leader in the PC market, the call to spin off its PC business is a bold but necessary step in the right direction. It is likely to yield business benefits in the long run,? Sumanta further added.
The announcement is likely to have an impact on the strategic planning of the firm’s local partners in India. As a result, HP’s India partners could adopt a cautious approach, which may not augur well for HP before the impending festive season that typically witnesses the highest consumer PC sales in the year. ?While the spoils can be shared among Acer, Dell, Lenovo and Sony, Dell is better suited to reap the most of this opportunity because of their greater exposure to the consumer space. In the long term, both Microsoft and AMD could be impacted, since HP has been a major partner for both the companies. Whatever happens, personal computers are unlikely to die out in India in a hurry,? Sumanta said.