PC shipments up 3.5% at 2.6 mn units in Jan-March

Lenovo clinches top spot in domestic market with 15.8% market share

Personal computer (PC) shipments in the country increased 3.5% in the first three months of 2012 to 2.63 million units, driven by revival in consumer buying and spurt in commercial spending, according to a report by research firm IDC.

"The growth in PC volumes are reflective of the rise in consumption levels and investment activity for PCs in the recent past. A spurt in commercial spending was backed by a revival in consumer sentiment towards March," IDC Senior Analyst Kiran Kumar said in a statement.

In terms of driving factors, IDC Associate Research Director Adwaita Menon said, "Commoditisation is driving growth into semi-urban markets, which have shown faster growth than metros."

Vendors are focusing on high-margin products such as all- in-one units (AIOs) and small portables to maintain the growth momentum and margins, Menon added.

Backed by one of the biggest deals in India, namely Elcot, Lenovo clinched the top spot in the India PC market with a 15.8% market share in Q1 2012, IDC said.

The state-run Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (Elcot) had issued a tender seeking rate contract for over 900,000 laptops to be supplied and Lenovo had bagged a major portion of the deal along with other companies like Acer and HCL.

Dell secured the second spot with 15% share, followed very closely by HP with a 14.9% share, IDC added.

"Dell continues to retain the brand recall amongst customers. However, HP's feet-on-street approach to pro- actively engage channel partners has paid off well in the recent past. Further a good balance of product mix at attractive price bands has helped HP grow higher than the market average in Q1," Kumar said.

The white box (assembled) PC market, however, continues to reel under pressure on the price front, owing to a significant surge in hard disk prices and subsequent shift in consumer purchase towards portable PCs, IDC said.

The white box PC market dipped to 37.6% share of the overall desktop PC business in Q1 2012 compared to 45.4% share in January-March 2011.