India PC market grows 17.8% to 3.7 million in April-June 2022 quarter: IDC

The Indian PC market grew by 17.8 per cent in shipment to 3.7 million units in the April-June 2022 quarter, International Data Corporation (IDC) said in a report on Thursday.

The PC market includes desktops, notebooks and workstations.

The notebook category continued to be the volume driver, with the shipment of 2.6 million units in the June 2022 quarter. However, its growth rate reduced to 7.3 per cent compared to over 30 per cent on average for the last three quarters.

The desktop category continued its strong run, shipping more than one million units for the second consecutive quarter, IDC Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker report said.

"The government segment was strong due to spillover orders from the previous quarter, but the other segments are slowing, with channel inventory increasing. The enterprise segment grew by 14.9 per cent, much lower than the previous three quarters as order materialisation got delayed.

"Similarly, the small and medium business growth rate was lower than in the previous two quarters, and channel inventory increased considerably as demand tapered," the report said.

HP topped the chart with the shipment of 11.53 lakh units, accounting for 30.8 per cent market share in the segment. In the second position, Dell shipped 8.07 lakh units in the quarter, leading to a 21.6 per cent market share.

Lenovo held a 19.6 per cent market share with 7.34 lakh unit shipments, Acer Group 8.9 per cent share with 3.32 lakh unit shipments and Asus had a 6.1 per cent market share with 4.86 lakh shipments.

"Online channels have been softening over the last few quarters. While high footfall in offline channels led to a positive quarter for consumers, the growth tapered as schools started to open, thereby leading to reduced remote learning demand," IDC India PC Devices senior market analyst Bharath Shenoy said.

The demand for PCs was rather positive through April but it slowed in the second half of the quarter as the reopening of colleges got pushed to the third quarter of 2022, according to the report.

"As the opening of colleges got delayed to the third quarter this year, vendors are still hoping that back-to-college promotions will bring back consumer momentum. Online sales are also expected to start at the end of the third quarter of 2022. However, high channel inventory is a matter of concern and an inventory correction is inevitable in the next few months," Shenoy said.

IDC India, South Asia and ANZ Associate Vice President, Devices Research, Navkendar Singh said that increased channel inventory and slowing demand is a matter of concern in both the consumer and commercial segments.

"High inflation, fear of recession and dollar price fluctuations might slow PC procurement, especially among startups. Big enterprises are buying but delaying their purchases. Still, the upcoming online festivals might be a ray of hope in the consumer segment, while the strong momentum in the government segment and the existing pipeline in the enterprise segment are something to look up to in the commercial segment," he said.