A recent report by Gartner Inc. to gauge the
performance of the PC market in India through the first quarter of 2012
has proved to be rather disappointing. In what can be attributed to high
inflation and increased prices, the report found that the PC market
growth through the aforementioned duration has been rather sluggish with
Vishal Tripathi, principal research analyst at Gartner quoting that
consumer buying accounted for 47 percent of the total PC sales in the
first quarter of 2012, which is down 3 percent from the fourth quarter
of 2011. He added that the current market conditions, defined by high
inflation and rising prices have understandably forced the end consumer
to alter their purchasing decision. That in addition to the recent spurt
excise and import duties had a role to play in forcing the consumer to
postpone their purchases.
He added, “This underlies the fact that
high inflation and increased prices have forced users to either prolong
the life of their devices or postpone their purchase decision. The
increase in excise and import duties also played a part in decision
making postponement. The delay in rate contract from DGSND (Directorate
General of Supplies & Disposals) did not help market growth.”
However, the report also found that the combined desk-based and
mobile PC market in India grew to nearly 2.8 million units in the first
quarter of 2012, which essentially is a 6.6 percent increase over the
first quarter of 2011. Lenovo emerged to be the top vendor in the first
quarter of this year, when its PC shipments grew 64 percent. The report
adds that the "...partial execution of the Tamilnadu government order"
helped this happen. As opposed to Lenovo's PC shipment growth, that of
HP grew 21 percent, while yet another popular vendor, Dell suffered a
decline by 11 percent as compared to its performance in the Q1 2011. The
report further highlighted that multinational brands played a major
role in the Q1 of 2012, by contributing to more than half of the total
PC shipments (shipments from Acer, Dell, HP and Lenovo, the top 4
vendors, representing 54.5 percent of the market). HCL's PC market
though, saw a decline to 5.8 percent in the Q1 of 2012, as it
experienced a 13 percent year-on-year decline from the first quarter of
2011.