Overall PC sales touch 2.19 m units in Jul-Sep

Personal computer (PC) shipments in India touched 2.19 million units during July-September this year, up 24 per cent from the previous quarter, pointing to a strengthening recovery, an IDC India report said.

It said desktop PC sales accounted for nearly two-thirds of total PC sales at 1.458 million units, representing a 15.2 per cent increase over the previous quarter.

The report said sales of notebook PCs grew by 46 per cent, crossing the 0.7 million mark in a single quarter for the first time.

Overall, PC shipments have grown for the last three consecutive quarters after dropping sharply from a peak of 2.259 million units in July-September, 2008 to 1.560 million units in October-December, 2008.

According to the report, in the overall PC market, HP retained the top spot with a market share of 17.1 per cent, followed by Dell with 11.3 per cent and Acer with 11.1 per cent.

In terms of desktop PC shipments, HP retained its top position with a market share of 12.2 per cent, followed by HCL and Acer in second and third spots, respectively, in the third quarter of this year.

As far as notebook PCs were concerned, HP retained the top slot with a market share of 27 per cent in the quarter, followed by Dell and Acer.

"The July-September, 2009 quarter experienced a strong boost from new found consumer confidence that reflected in increased demand during the festive season," Mr Kapil Dev Singh, Country Manager, IDC India, said.

"Overall consumer PC sales recorded a 28 per cent growth quarter-on-quarter. This performance underlines the recovery in the India PC market," he said.

The report said the 21 per cent QoQ growth in the commercial PC shipments was a result of improved shipments across all sectors. While shipments to the public sector topped the growth charts in the quarter, there was also growth in shipments to large and very large enterprises, it said.

"Commercial PC sales can be expected to steadily improve as the economy recovers. Even though the consumer PC segment recorded a faster 28 per cent QoQ growth, industry will need to watch how the recovery in consumer PC unfolds in the quarters ahead," Mr Sumanta Mukherjee, Lead PC Analyst, IDC India said.

"The emerging mini notebook PC category needs to evolve in terms of processing power and graphics capabilities to compete with the mainstream notebook PC form factor. In the quarters ahead, the segment will desperately seek technology innovations to propel it to the next level of functionality and user adoption," Mr Mukherjee added.

NNN