Govt, Public Sector To Remain 'Bright Spots' In India PC Market: IDC

The overall India Client PC market shipments remained flat at 7.98 million during January-December 2008 against 8.06 million in 2007. For CY 2008, desktop PC shipments dropped 10.1 percent while notebook PC shipments recorded a growth of 31.5 percent on a year-on-year basis.

During the October-December 2008 quarter (4Q 2008), the overall India Client PC shipments were 1.56 million units, a drop of 22.7 percent over the same period previous year. The desktop PC shipments dropped 24.7 percent, while notebook PC shipments recorded a 17.4 percent degrowth (4Q 2008 over 4Q 2007).

During the fourth quarter, Hewlett-Packard retained the top spot in the overall India Client PC (notebooks and desktops combined) market with a market share of 15.6 percent by unit shipments. Dell dislodged HCL from the second spot with a 10.9 percent share, while HCL was third with 9.6 percent of total PC shipments.

More from Biztech

Future Group - Reliance Retail Deal approved by CCI RBI ban on cryptocurrencies takes effect; prohibition could force investors to tap the black market

In terms of desktop PC shipments during 4Q 2008, HP and HCL were tied at first position with a market share of 10.6 percent each, while Dell ranked third. In terms of notebook PC shipments during 4Q 2008, HP retained the top spot with a reduced market share of 27.6 percent followed by Dell at the second spot while Acer came in third.

“The Home and SMB segments recorded the lowest drop (in percentage terms) in CY 2008 vis-à-vis CY 2007. The measures announced by the RBI to free up credit are expected to revive demand from these segments and a moderate recovery in shipments may result during the second half of CY 2009,” said Sumanta Mukherjee, lead analyst, Computing Products Research, IDC India.

“The industry is also resting its hopes on the infrastructure, public sector spending and e-Governance and development projects,” Mukherjee added.

“Despite these measures, CY 2009 could still see a drop in overall India Client PC shipments. Judicious inventory management, coupled with marketing initiatives to explore the hitherto untapped ‘long tail’ of customers in the Indian heartland could be the key to survival in a tough year,” opined Kapil Dev Singh, country manager, IDC India.