India’s computer market expands slightly in first quarter

Mumbai: The combined desk-based and mobile personal computer, or PC, market in India reached nearly 2.8 million units in the first quarter of 2012, a 6.6% increase from a year earlier, according to research firm Gartner Inc.

Sales of so-called white boxes (including parallel imports), or computers without a registered a brand name, which accounted for 45% of the overall desktop market, declined 20% in January-March in comparison to the first quarter of 2011. Mobile PCs, with a 27%increase from the first quarter of 2011, helped drive overall market growth.

The partial execution of the Tamil Nadu government’s orders for laptops promised to students by chief minister J. Jayalalithaa in her election campaign helped Lenovo India Pvt. Ltd reach the No. 1 position, with a 64% increase in PC shipments. Hewlett-Packard India’s PC shipment grew 21% and Dell India’s shipments declined 11%.

Multinational brands contributed more than half the PC shipments in the first quarter of 2012, with shipments from Acer, Dell, HP and Lenovo--the top four vendors -- representing 54.5% of the market.

Local vendor HCL Technologies Ltd’s PC market share dropped to 5.8% in the quarter as it experienced a 13% year-on-year decline in sales from the first quarter of 2011.

Consumer buying accounted for 47% of total PC sales in the first quarter of 2012, down 3% from the fourth quarter of 2011, according to Vishal Tripathi, principal research analyst at Gartner.

“This underlines the fact that high inflation and increased prices have forced users to either prolong the life of their devices or postpone their purchase decision,” Tripathi said. “The increase in excise and import duties also played a part in decision making postponement.”