After the recent report on Indian Internet Population which established that the number of Indian Internet users has surpassed 100 million and cybercafe usage is on the decline, comes another report (by Gartner) which says the PC market is on an upward trend as well.
“The combined desk-based and mobile PC market in India totaled nearly 3.15 million units in the third quarter of 2011, a 13 per cent increase over the third quarter of 2010”, says Gartner. This quarter was the best ever in the Indian PC industry as the number of shipments crossed the 3 million mark for the first time, with the top 4 multinational providers supplying 51% of PCs to the Indian market.
India PC Market Share Estimates for Third Quarter of 2011 (Percentage of Shipments)
|
Vendors |
3Q11 Market Share (%) |
|
Dell |
15.0 |
|
HP |
13.3 |
|
Lenovo |
12.1 |
|
Acer |
10.8 |
|
HCL |
5.6 |
|
Others |
43.2 |
|
Total |
100.0 |
A major part of this growth can be attributed to the mobile PC shipments, which has increased by 29% as compared to the same quarter last year. This growth means there is a parallel market for mobile PCs and other mobile devices, since the use of mobile phones and tablets is also on a never-before-rise in India, as pointed out in this story at PI.
Gartner attributes the festival season Q3 in India to be a major reason behind the growth, and expects sluggishness in the market in Q4. I would not buy that fact though. Increased awareness, penetration of internet to remote areas, peer-pressure, and the increasing involvement and impact of social networking in our offline lives can be daunting enough reasons for people to go towards buying new devices.
An earlier report (Dec 2010) by Gartner forecasted 25% growth in PC shipments in India in 2011 totalling to 13.2 million PCs. With Q3 scoring 13%, even being the best-performing quarter, looks like that expectation was a bit far-fetched.
Affordable mobile devices and even more affordable data plans is an important factor in the growth of mobile devices in the price-sensitive Indian market. What do you think? Will this growth in the PC shipments sustain over a long run? Will new adopters of the internet be more inclined to buy a PC or a mobile phone/tablet? Will the seasoned users prefer buying a new laptop or a shiny tablet?
Is this growth seasonal or will it continue?
