India ships less than 4 million PCs for the first time in 4 quarters

India shipped 3.7 million PCs including laptops, desktops and workstations in the three months ending June, IDC India said in its latest quarterly tracker, published on Thursday.

Though shipments grew by 17.9% year-on-year (YoY), IDC noted that this is the first time shipments have dropped under 4 million in the last four quarters.

The research firm attributed this drop to the slowing down of demand in consumer as well some commercial segments.

Demand from government agencies remained strong due to “spillover orders” from the first quarter, IDC added.

Notebooks accounted for 2.6 million unit shipments during the June quarter. However, it grew only 7.3% YoY as compared to 30% YoY average growth seen in the previous three quarters.  

Enterprise segment grew 14.9%, which was much lower than the growth seen in the previous three quarters. Growth in small and midsize business (SMB) segment was also lower than previous two quarters.

In the consumer segment, high footfall in offline channels contributed to growth, however, it lost momentum as many schools resumed offline classes.

Bharath Shenoy, senior market analyst, PC Devices at IDC India said that with colleges expected to open in the third quarter this year, vendors are counting on “back-to-college promotions.” 

Online sales are also expected to start at the end of third quarter and is expected to provide some movement on consumer segment.

That said, Shenoy notes that high channel inventory is a concern and may force vendors to carry out an inventory correction in the next few months.

The economic downturn has also affected PC industry.

“Inflation, fear of recession, and dollar price fluctuations might slow PC procurement, especially among startups. Big enterprises are buying but delaying their purchases,” said Navkendar Singh, Associate Vice President, Devices Research, IDC India, South Asia & ANZ.

In terms of market share, HP with 1.5 million units was the market leader in third quarter, accounting for 30.8% of the shipments. HP saw growth in both enterprise and government segments even as shipments in consumer segment saw a marginal decline.

Dell with 21.6% market share was the second leading vendor, followed by Lenovo (19.6%), Acer (8.9%), and Asus (6.1%).