Indian PC market continued to be in throes of a prolonged recession in the first three months of 2018, according to data from CMR, but could report its first yearly growth rate in 2018.
CMR said there was a decline of 9.2% in the number of computers sold to consumers in India in Jan-Mar period compared to three months before that. The enterprise segment too declined by 7.8%, contributing to an overall sequential decline of 8.4% in PC sales.
However, said the market tracker, the country is likely to see a growth in total computer sales in the year as a whole.
India’s PC market has been seeing yearly declines for several years as many have switched to tablets and smartphones for their media consumption, Internet and other needs.
“The India PC Market is slated to grow in the reminder of 2018, with increased enterprise and consumer spending,” CMR said.
It is estimating a 4% growth for the overall market this year, including 5% increase in enterprise sales and a 2% growth for the consumer segment.
“We believe the consumer spending will drive the uptake of new PC segments, including gaming laptops and convertibles,” said Amit Sharma, Analyst-Industry Intelligence Group at CMR.
“The enterprise PC segment will see renewed growth on the back of new Government initiatives under Digital India, and by increased spending from technology startups, and small and medium enterprises looking to deploy new PC devices.”
HP OVERTAKES DELL
In the first three months of the year, HP again overtook Dell to regain its No.1 position, CMR said.
HP had a market share of 28.9%, while Dell followed with 23.4% and Lenovo had 21.8%.
HP, which has been promoting its products aggressively through mass media in recent months, saw much of its increased volumes coming from the consumer segment, noted CMR.
Dell, it said, is focusing on strengthening channel and partner-led business. “The focus has been on new strategies to bring the product in to the market with more emphasis on (distribution) channel enablement.”
“Lenovo’s focus in 1Q 2018 was to better incentivize channel partners through channel support initiatives. Alongside Lenovo’s service campaigns played a major role for the brand to remain in the top three,” CMR said.
