India’s traditional PC market (comprising desktops, notebooks and workstations) continued its growth surge with shipments recording 73.1% year-over-year(YoY) growth in Q1 2021, according to the latest report by the International Data Corporation (IDC).
PC Industry Faces Bleak Future Despite Stellar Growth in Q1 2021
Analysts, however, believe that the PC industry is facing an uncertain future as the nation is gripping with supply shortages and rising economic problems amid the second wave of the pandemic.
The new IDC report suggests that a total of 3.1 million PCs were shipped in the record first-quarter shipments to India. Notebook shipments dominated the proceedings by capturing more than three-fourths share in the PC market while registering a massive 116.7% YoY growth during Q1 2021.
Reasons for Growth Surge in PC Market
Given the current work-from-home scenario coupled with rising adoption of online education system across the country, the demand for PCs continued to surge among enterprises, SMBs and end-users. On the flip side, this also meant that the demand far outstripped the supply allocation for PC components in the country.
Company-wise Market Share and Shipments Growth
The report titled Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker clearly pegs Apple on top of growth charts with its quarterly shipments (for Q1 2021) growing at 335.5% YoY and 45.3% from the previous quarter, driven by the sales of M1-powered Macs which were launched last year.
Overall, HP topped the PC component shipment-wise YoY growth charts in Q1 2021 witnessing a share of 102.1%, followed by Dell in second position with 21.8% market share, Lenovo (20.1% share), Acer (7.1% share) and Asus (5.4% share).
India’s Economic Recovery and Future Challenges
India’s economy saw substantial recovery in Q1 2021 following the first wave of Covid-19 last year. As the country adopted to new social-distancing norms with hybrid and work-from-home culture, we saw an increasing demand in the PC market. Furthermore, the lower than normal shipments in Q1 2021 also helped the annual growth as it yielded a much favourable outcome due to the lower base.
Highlighting the data, Jaipal Singh, Associate Research Manager at IDC India said PC vendors are facing an uncertain future in the wake of India battling the deadly second wave of COVID-19.
“Additionally, the current COVID situation has also impacted the field teams. While most vendors’ immediate concern is re-joining with full strength, they will also use this time to plan their inventory for the coming quarters, as we will see a further surge in the PC demand when the situation improves in the coming months,” he added.
