The previous year, a big chunk of which was spent in lockdown, has seen a massive surge in usage of not just apps and software but also of devices and hardware such as laptop, computers, notebooks etc. Thus, to no one’s surprise, the Indian PC market witnessed a tremendous 27% growth in the last quarter of 2020, according to IDC’s Computing Device Tracker.
With offices and schools continuing to function online, combined with year-end sales and the holiday season, the market comprising of desktops, workstations, and notebooks, saw a huge rise in demand, one which the supply could not match.
The market registered a 2.9 million units of shipments, with notebooks alone witnessing a 62.1% year on year growth. The shipments, however, saw a 6.4% YoY decline when compared to 2019. This could be due to vendors being unable to meet the unit demand, as well as the inability to deliver in contaminated zones.
Notebooks were the top-seller in this overall growth, owing to needs of e-learning and their size. Desktops on the other hand saw a decline, due to offices shutting down and reducing the installation of the permanent setup, and preferring mobiles and laptops.
“The massive demand in the consumer segment driven by online learning led to the exceptional performance of notebooks. Likewise, gaming notebook PCs were one of the fastest-growing categories, further proof of the growing importance of gaming in the country,” IDC India Market Analyst (PC Devices) Bharath Shenoy said.
HP remained the top-runner in the PC market with a 28.7% share, with Dell being a close second, owning 23.2% share. These were followed by Lenovo, Acer Group and Asus respectively.
The market is expected to continue rising, with majority of offices still in work-from-home mode, and schools allowing selective attendance. The government is also looking at several education schemes, which would only help the demand.
2021 is also being seen as a second chance to make up for what was lost due to unavailability of units.
“2021 will give another opportunity to the vendors to leverage the missed prospects due to supply constraints in 2020. So far, consumer demand does not seem to be abating anytime soon, and enterprises also continue to place fresh orders,” IDC India Associate Research Manager (Client Devices) Jaipal Singh said. “However, if the current supply challenges continue for some more months, it can offset the ongoing demand to some extent. Availability of the devices will not only be critical for the category growth but will play an important role in the expansion of the market in the country.”
