India PC shipments up 7%

Increased demand from the government, education and banking segments resulted in the Indian personal computer market recording a 7 per cent sequential growth in shipments in the first quarter of the calendar year 2009.

A total of 1.67 million units of client PCs were shipped during the January-March quarter, according to IDC’s Asia/Pacific Quarterly PC Tracker. Desktop PC shipments registered a sequential growth of 9 per cent, while notebook PC shipments grew 3 per cent over the figures of the trailing quarter.

The top three players in the India Client PC market during the quarter were HP, HCL and Dell, respectively.

Despite the subdued market, the total installed base of PCs in India surged past 36 million units. The country now has one personal computer for every 30 Indians. This represents a significant improvement over March 2007, when the country boasted of one computer for every 50 Indians. “Though the year-on-year growth rate of India’s client PC shipments dropped by 19 per cent, this was an improvement over the previous quarter, indicating the market has perhaps already bottomed out,” explained Sumanta Mukherjee, Lead Analyst, Computing Products Research, IDC India.

The report indicates the government sector has the potential to spend more in the quarter under consideration. Some of this spending is expected to resurface after the formation of a new government. “With a number of significant government-funded education and e-governance projects lined up in the coming quarters, a lot will hinge on how quickly the new government settles down to business,” added Mukherjee.