Mumbai: Personal computers (PC) sales in India fell 3.1% from a year earlier to 2.19 million units during July-September, IT research firm IDC said on Thursday.

However, the sales for the quarter was 24% higher from April-June, indicating the recovery was strengthening, IDC said in a statement.

“The July-September 2009 quarter experienced a strong boost from new found consumer confidence that reflected in increased demand during the festive season,” said Kapil Dev Singh, country manager, IDC India.

“This performance underlines the recovery in the India PC market.”

Desktop PC sales accounted for nearly two-thirds of total PC sales at 1.46 million units, down 6.7% over last year, but up 15.2% over April-June.

However, notebook PC shipments rose 5.2% to 731,707 units on year.

Hewlett-Packard retained the top slot in total PC sales with a market share of 17.1%, followed by Dell and Acer at 11.3% and 11.1% market share respectively.

“Commercial PC sales can be expected to steadily improve as the economy recovers,” said Sumanta Mukherjee, lead PC analyst at IDC India.