Acer pips HP to become No 2 PC seller in India

Acer has overtaken HP (Hewlett Packard) to be the new No.2 in the country’s personal computer (PC) market in the second quarter of 2011, on the back of its pricing strategy and strong commercial business, according to Gartner.

Acer has managed to gain its market share to 12.1 per cent from 11.9 per cent in the previous quarter. Dell held on to its first position with 17 per cent market share, while HP dropped to third position with a share of 11.2 per cent.

A few quarters ago, HP had lost its leading position in the country’s PC market to Dell.

“HP has been busy with the realignment of its PC business. They have realigned their distribution and channel network. Though the process is over, they will take some time to bounce back. It will take another three to four quarters for them to gain market share,” said Vishal Tripathi, Principal Research Analyst at Gartner.

The combined desk-based and laptop PC market in India totalled nearly 2.5 million units in the second quarter of 2011, a 2.5 per cent increase over the second quarter of 2010. On a sequential basis, the overall PC market saw a dip of 3.8 per cent, from 2.6 million units.

Acer led the ranking in the desktop PC segment. It was followed by HCL, Dell and HP. In the January-March quarter, HP was ranked second in this segment. In the laptop segment, too, HP’s ranking has gone down on a sequential basis. For the current quarter, while Dell retained its first position, HP slipped to the fourth position from second in the earlier quarter. For the June quarter, both Lenovo and Acer have overtaken HP.

All the major multinational PC vendors, with the exception of HP, experienced double-digit growth in PC shipments in the second quarter of 2011. Multinational brands contributed more than half of the total PC shipments in the second quarter of 2011 with shipments from Acer, Dell, HP and Lenovo, the top four vendors, representing 50.4 per cent of the market. Local vendor HCL accounted for 6.6 per cent of PC shipments in the second quarter.

“The overall growth was primarily driven by the mobile PC market which grew 17 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2011. We expect the market to perform far better in the coming quarter due to the festive season which is considered as auspicious for buying,” said Tripathi.