India PC market on recovery path despite slight shipment growth in 3Q24

As India entered its annual festive season, PC shipments experienced slight growth despite a weak consumer market. Acer achieved double-digit growth, driven by strong demand from the education sector and other industries.

According to IDC's India PC market tracker, shipments of traditional PC, including desktops, notebooks, and workstations) grew by 0.1% year-over-year in the third quarter, reaching 4.49 million units. Desktop PC shipments declined by 8.1%, and notebooks and workstations increased by 2.8% and 2.4% year-on-year, respectively, over the past quarter.

Premium notebooks priced over US$1,000 saw a 7.6% increase in demand, driven by sales during online shopping festivals. In the third quarter of 2024, the consumer segment fell by 2.9% year-over-year despite aggressive discounts on e-tail platforms. The demand was more organic compared to the previous year, with vendors avoiding overstocking, which resulted in a slight decline. Meanwhile, the commercial segment grew by 4.4%, and the enterprise segment observed significant growth of 9.6% year-over-year.

HP maintained a commanding lead in the market with a 29% share, followed by Lenovo at 17.3%. Acer recorded a 26.2% year-over-year shipment growth in the past quarter, driven by the partial fulfillment of education projects and key enterprise orders, making it the top brand in the commercial segment. Meanwhile, Asus, the second-largest player in the consumer market after HP, faced a 22.3% year-over-year decline due to leaner inventory levels.

Bharath Shenoy, research manager at IDC India & South Asia, stated that the e-tail sales, which typically start around the second week of October, had begun in late September, resulting in a surge in PC shipments. He noted that brands capitalized on the e-tail sales by offering steep discounts, cashback, and bundled accessories.

Many brands also matched similar pricing in their brand stores and offline channels such as Larger Format Retail stores (LFRs), leading to the second biggest consumer quarter in history. By utilizing these diverse strategies, vendors successfully tapped into different market tiers, ultimately driving a significant increase in consumer PC sales.

Navkendar Singh, associate vice president of Devices Research at IDC India, South Asia & ANZ, commented on the outlook, stating that the Commercial PC Market in India is on the recovery path as enterprises have gradually begun refreshing their IT devices. He noted that IT/ITES purchasing has started and is expected to gain momentum in 2025.

Meanwhile, he observed that the growing adoption of PCs for gaming and content creation, along with an increasing focus on AI features and tools in PCs, is expected to drive the consumer segment in the fourth quarter of 2024 and throughout 2025, enabling it to close out 2024 and 2025 positively.

Source: IDC, November 2024