Trends like work and study from home continued to drive robust demand in the Indian PC market with over 3.17 million units being shipped in the June quarter, up 50.5 per cent over the year-ago period, research firm IDC said.
The traditional PC market (inclusive of desktops, notebooks, and workstations) in India had logged shipment of 2.11 million units in the April-June 2020 period.
“A total of 3.2 million PCs were shipped in the quarter, with all product categories reporting strong double-digit growth. In the absence of any large education and government deal, this was the second consecutive quarter when India’s PC market saw shipments of over 3 million PCs, underlining the growth in the enterprise, SMB, and consumer segments,” IDC said in a statement.
Notebook PCs continued to hold more than three-fourth share in the overall PC category and grew 49.9 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2021. This is the fourth consecutive quarter, wherein notebook PCs reported over 2 million units shipment.
Desktops also indicated a recovery as shipments grew 52.3 per cent y-o-y after recording the lowest shipments of the decade in the June 2020 quarter.
“The second wave of COVID-19 further delayed the opening of schools and colleges, strengthening the demand for PCs for home learning. In Q2 2021, the consumer segment grew 118.4 per cent y-o-y, and 5.9 per cent sequentially as vendors prepared the channel in anticipation of stronger demand, IDC said.
The commercial segment grew 13.8 per cent y-o-y in the June 2021 quarter as enterprises, especially the IT and IT-enabled services companies, continued buying to manage the growing workforce in the ongoing work from home scenario, it added.
The demand from SMBs also supported the growth of the commercial segment as it grew 61.2 per cent from the same period a year ago.
“Despite the country being severely impacted by the second wave of COVID-19, there was a sense of optimism in the market as vendors utilised the time to procure devices to assure channel availability from their end,” IDC India Market Analyst (PC Devices) Bharath Shenoy said.
“Channel partners were struggling with low inventories and backlogs for almost a year; this came as a breather for a few vendors as they were able to add a few more weeks’ inventories to their channel, he added.
“However, as demand continues to outstrip the supply, it doesn’t seem that the channel inventory will return to normal before the year-end,” Shenoy said.
HP Inc maintained its lead in the India PC market with a 33.6 per cent share as its shipments grew 54.2 per cent annually. Dell Technologies continued to hold the second position with a 22.1 per cent and 86.1 per cent y-o-y growth in the June 2021 quarter.
Lenovo held onto the third position with a share of 17.8 per cent, while Acer ranked fourth with 8.7 per cent share.
Asus
“The tremendous growth in India’s consumer notebook segment is attracting many smartphone brands to explore this category. The country offers huge potential for all brands to grow if they timely address the demand, which is slowly shifting to entry-level price points,” IDC India Research Manager (Client Devices) Jaipal Singh said.
He added that the current supply situation, however, may restrict the growth opportunities in the short term.
“…but this is a great window of opportunity to enter India’s consumer notebook market…New brands also need to be considerate about the challenges that PC vendors faced in the past in terms of affordability, connectivity, and usability, and their devices portfolio should be aligned to these challenges if they are eying a significant share in this market,” he said.