PC sales in India creep up in Q2 thanks to freebies in Tamil Nadu state

29th August 2012
PC sales in India creep up in Q2  thanks to freebies in Tamil Nadu state

Election freebies in an Indian state boost  laptop  sales; Top 5 are 'usual suspects'Mumbai, August 29, 2012 - Analyst Gartner find that combined desk-based and mobile PC market in India totalled nearly 2.9 million units in the second quarter of 2012, a 17 per cent increase over the second quarter of 2011.
“Consumer buying accounted for 50 percent of total PC sales in the second quarter of 2012,” said Vishal Tripathi, principal research analyst at Gartner. “Consumer PC sales grew 24 percent sequentially, which emphasizes the fact that media tablets are not yet cannibalizing the PC market in India like in the West. Vendors such as HP, Lenovo, Asus and Samsung registered more than 50 percent growth in the consumer segment. Ultrabooks are still finding it difficult to penetrate the market.” Mobile PCs, which grew 54 percent compared to the second quarter of 2011, helped drive overall market growth. White boxes (including parallel import), which accounted for 45 percent of the overall desktop market, declined 18 percent in the second quarter of 2012 in comparison to the second quarter of 2011.
Execution of a substantial part of the Tamilnadu government order – part of an election promise to supply laptops to students -- very aggressive price points and increased channel activities helped Lenovo’s PC shipments grow 86 percent and retain its No. 1 postion in the second quarter of 2012. HP’s PC shipment grew 36 percent while Dell’s shipments declined by 10 percent compared to the second quarter of 2011. The top four multinational brands (Acer, Dell, HP and Lenovo) contributed 56 percent of the market . Local vendor HCL’s PC market share saw a flat growth of 0.2 percent, and its market share dropped to 5.6 percent in the second quarter of 2012.
The top five:
Lenovo 16.6%
Acer 13.4 %
HP 13.1 %
Dell 12.9 %
HCL 5.6 %
On the global stage, Acer emerged no. 1 notebook player during the same period, with a share of 15.35%.