India's PC Market Sees Record Supply of 4.49 Million Units in July-September Quarter

The Indian PC market saw a slight increase in shipments during July to September, reaching 4.49 million units, marking the highest quarterly supply ever, according to International Data Corporation (IDC). The IDC Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker report highlighted that HP led the market with a 29% share, despite a 1.5% year-over-year decline in shipments to 1.3 million units.

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India's traditional PC market, which includes desktops, notebooks, and workstations, achieved a record shipment of 4.49 million units in the third quarter of 2024. This represents a modest 0.1% year-over-year growth. While desktop shipments fell by 8.1%, notebooks and workstations experienced slight increases of 2.8% and 2.4%, respectively.

Market Dynamics and Consumer Trends

Online festival sales significantly boosted demand for premium notebooks priced over USD 1,000 (approximately Rs 83,000), resulting in a 7.6% year-over-year growth. Bharath Shenoy, IDC India & South Asia research manager, noted that brands capitalised on e-tail sales by offering substantial discounts, cashbacks, and bundled accessories.

Many brands also matched these offers in their physical stores and larger format retail outlets. This strategy contributed to the second-largest consumer quarter in history as vendors tapped into various market segments to drive consumer PC sales.

Despite aggressive discounting on e-tail platforms, the consumer segment saw a 2.9% year-over-year decline during the reported quarter. Unlike the previous year, vendors avoided overstocking in September 2024, leading to this slight decrease.

Commercial Segment Growth

The commercial segment experienced a 4.4% year-over-year growth, while the enterprise segment grew by 9.6%. HP Inc maintained its leadership with a 29% market share in Q3 2024, excelling in both commercial and consumer segments with shares of 34.3% and 24.8%, respectively.

HP shipped 1.05 million notebooks in Q3 2024, marking its third-largest quarter ever due to robust enterprise segment performance and strong consumer notebook demand during festive sales.

Competitive Landscape

Lenovo followed HP with shipments of 778,000 units, capturing a 17.3% market share. Dell Technologies and Acer Group shared the third spot with a market share of 14.6%. Acer recorded the highest growth among competitors with a remarkable 26.2% increase in PC shipments during the reported quarter.

Conversely, Asus experienced a significant decline of 22.3% year-over-year to 435,000 units in Q3, as per the report.

Future Outlook

Navkendar Singh from IDC India, South Asia and ANZ highlighted that India's commercial PC market is recovering as enterprises begin refreshing their IT devices. IT/ITES purchasing has started and is expected to gain momentum in calendar year 2025.

The rising use of PCs for gaming and content creation, along with increased focus on AI features and tools in PCs, is anticipated to boost the consumer segment in Q4 of 2024 and CY2025.