India's PC Market Clocks Record Growth In 3Q24 India's PC market shipped an all-time high of 4.49 million units in 3Q24, according to IDC

India's traditional PC market inclusive of desktops, notebooks, and workstations shipped an all-time high of 4.49 million units in 3Q24, up 0.1 per cent year-over-year (YoY) according to new data from the International Data Corporation (IDC). The desktop category declined by 8.1 per cent YoY, while the notebook and workstation categories saw marginal growth of 2.8 per cent YoY and 2.4 per cent YoY, respectively. Online festival sales drove the demand for premium notebooks (>$1,000), which grew by 7.6 per cent YoY.

In 3Q24, the consumer segment declined by 2.9 per cent YoY despite vendors aggressively discounting a wide range of PCs on e-tail platforms. The demand situation was more organic this year, and unlike 3Q23, vendors did not overstock in 3Q24, thereby leading to a marginal YoY decline. The commercial segment grew by 4.4 per cent YoY, while the enterprise segment grew by 9.6 per cent YoY.

"The e-tail sales, which typically starts around the second week of October, began in late September, leading to a surge in PC shipments," said Bharath Shenoy, research manager, IDC India & South Asia. "Brands capitalized on e-tail sales by offering steep discounts, cashbacks, and bundled accessories. Many of them also matched similar pricing in their brand stores and offline channels like Larger Format Retail stores (LFRs), leading to the second biggest consumer quarter in history. By leveraging these diverse strategies, vendors were able to tap into different market tiers ultimately driving a significant increase in consumer PC sales."

HP Inc. led the market with a share of 29 per cent in 3Q24, topping the charts in both commercial and consumer segments with shares of 34.3 per cent and 24.8 per cent, respectively. HP shipped 1.05 million notebooks in 3Q24, its third biggest quarter ever, driven by strong performance in the enterprise segment which grew by 30.2 per cent YoY and good demand for consumer notebooks during festive sales. Lenovo was a distant second with a share of 17.3 per cent, followed by Dell Technologies, Acer Group and Asus.

Commenting on the outlook, Navkendar Singh, associate vice president, devices research, IDC India, South Asia & ANZ said, "The Commercial PC Market in India is on the recovery path as enterprises have slowly started refreshing their IT devices. The IT/ITES buying has kickstarted and is expected to pick up momentum in CY2025. Meanwhile, the growing adoption of PCs for gaming and content creation coupled with the increasing focus on AI features and tools in PCs are expected to drive the consumer segment in 4Q24 and CY2025, thereby facilitating it to close off 2024 and 2025 in green."