Top PC vendors lose marketshare

New Delhi: In a subdued India PC market, Hewlett-Packard (HP) held the largest share, HCL Infosystems grew and Dell saw a decline in its share during Q1 2009 (January—March 2009), according to IDC India's latest study.

HP maintained its lead and gained share in PCs (desktops and notebooks) to capture 18.2 percent of the India PC market in terms of unit shipments. HCL Infosystems with a marketshare of 9.8 percent of overall PC shipments regained the second spot. Dell, which jumped to second position for the first time in the October to December 2008 quarter, slipped back to the third spot in Q1 2009.

While Acer's marketshare dipped marginally (7.7 percent in Q4 2008 to 7.3 percent in Q1 2009), Lenovo's share showed a more pronounced drop of 1.9 points (6.6 percent in Q4 2008 to 4.7 percent in Q1 2009), revealed the IDC India study.

“Moving forward, hardware in general and PC shipments in particular will continue to remain under pressure. Winners would gain marketshare and improve profitability through the right price/volume mix and optimal exploitation of supply chain efficiencies,” stated Kapil Dev Singh, Country Manager, IDC India.

“With the twin forces of market de-growth and loss of share, those vendors who do not occupy a clear niche in customers' minds would be under pressure,” he added.

In the short term, over the next two quarters, vendor positions in the India PC market would be largely determined by how well they are able to exploit the opportunities presented by the consumer, education and government segments, the IDC India report added.

The India PC market witnessed a seven percent QoQ growth in shipments in Q1 2009 over Q4 2008, according to IDC's Asia-Pacific Quarterly PC Tracker, May 2009 release.

A total of 16,79,000 units of client PCs (desktops and notebooks) were shipped during the January-March quarter of 2009. Desktop PC shipments of 12,13,000 units registered a sequential growth of ninc percent QoQ while notebook PC shipments of 4,66,000 units recorded a growth of three percent QoQ. In spite of the overall subdued market, the total installed base of PCs in India surged past the 36 million units mark.

India PC shipments: Top 5 vendor shares (% of units), Q1 2009 vs Q4 2008

Source: IDC