India PC Market Grew 6.6% In 1Q12: Gartner

The combined desk-based and mobile PC market in India totalled nearly 2.8 million units in the first quarter of 2012, a 6.6 per cent increase over the first quarter of 2011, according to Gartner, Inc.

“Consumer buying accounted for 47 percent of total PC sales in the first quarter of 2012, which is down 3 percent from the fourth quarter of 2011,” said Vishal Tripathi, Principal Research Analyst, Gartner “This underlies the fact that high inflation and increased prices have forced users to either prolong the life of their devices or postpone their purchase decision. The increase in excise and import duties also played a part in decision making postponement. The delay in rate contract from DGSND (Directorate General of Supplies & Disposals) did not help market growth.”

White boxes (including parallel import), which accounted for 45 percent of the overall desktop market, declined 20 percent in the first quarter of 2012 in comparison to the first quarter of 2011. Mobile PCs, with a 27 percent increase from the first quarter of 2011, helped drive overall market growth.

The partial execution of the Tamil Nadu government order helped Lenovo’s PC shipments grow 64 percent and reach the No. 1 position in the first quarter of 2012. HP’s PC shipment grew 21 percent, whereas Dell declined 11 percent in compared to the first quarter of 2011. Multinational brands contributed to more than half of the total PC shipments in the first quarter of 2012, with shipments from Acer, Dell, HP and Lenovo, the top 4 vendors, representing 54.5 percent of the market. Local vendor HCL’s PC market share dropped to 5.8 percent in the first quarter of 2012, as it experienced a 13 percent year-on-year decline from the first quarter of 2011.