India’s PC Market Shipped an All-Time High of 4.49 Million Units in 3Q24

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

India’s traditional PC market (inclusive of desktops, notebooks, and workstations) shipped an all-time high of 4.49 Million Units in 3Q24, up 0.1% year-over-year (YoY) according to new data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker. The desktop category declined by 8.1% YoY, while the notebook and workstation categories saw marginal growth of 2.8% YoY and 2.4% YoY, respectively. Online festival sales drove the demand for premium notebooks (>US$1,000), which grew by 7.6% YoY.

In 3Q24, the consumer segment declined by 2.9% YoY despite vendors aggressively discounting a wide range of PCs on e-tail platforms. The demand situation was more organic this year, and unlike 3Q23, vendors did not overstock in 3Q24, thereby leading to a marginal YoY decline. The commercial segment grew by 4.4% YoY, while the enterprise segment grew by 9.6% YoY.

“The e-tail sales, which typically starts around the second week of October, began in late September, leading to a surge in PC shipments,” said Bharath Shenoy, Research Manager, IDC India & South Asia. “Brands capitalized on e-tail sales by offering steep discounts, cashbacks, and bundled accessories. Many of them also matched similar pricing in their brand stores and offline channels like Larger Format Retail stores (LFRs), leading to the second biggest consumer quarter in history. By leveraging these diverse strategies, vendors were able to tap into different market tiers ultimately driving a significant increase in consumer PC sales.”

HP Inc. led the market with a share of 29% in 3Q24, topping the charts in both commercial and consumer segments with shares of 34.3% and 24.8%, respectively. HP shipped 1.05 million notebooks in 3Q24, its third biggest quarter ever, driven by strong performance in the enterprise segment which grew by 30.2%YoY and good demand for consumer notebooks during festive sales.

Lenovo was a distant second with a share of 17.3%. Some key enterprise orders and good momentum in the SMB segment helped Lenovo grab a 20.3% share in the commercial segment. Also, improved focus on branded gaming notebooks and push on e-tail channels during festive sales facilitated a strong consumer quarter with a share of 15% and 3% YoY growth.

Dell Technologies stood third with a 14.6% share. Dell came second behind HP in the commercial segment, with a 20.8% share and a 4.7% growth YoY. Dell witnessed good momentum in the SMB segment where it grew by 14.9% YoY. However, unlike most of the other vendors, Dell was not very aggressive during the e-tail sales, which led to a 5.4% YoY decline in the consumer segment.

Acer Group was tied in third position with Dell Technologies, with its shipment marginally behind Dell but with 14.6% market share. Acer grew by 26.2% YoY in 3Q24. Partial fulfillment of some education projects and some key enterprise orders helped the brand to top the commercial desktop category with a share of 30.2%. Acer targeted e-tail channels during festive sales which led to 38% YoY surge in its consumer segment shipment.

Asus was fifth with a 9.7% share and experienced 22.3% YoY decline largely due to a leaner inventory compared to last year. However, Asus was second only to HP in the consumer segment, with a share of 16.2%, and also grew 5.5% YoY in the commercial segment, which was their focus in 2024.

Commenting on the outlook, Navkendar Singh, Associate Vice President, Devices Research, IDC India, South Asia & ANZ said, “The Commercial PC Market in India is on the recovery path as enterprises have slowly started refreshing their IT devices. The IT/ITES buying has kickstarted and is expected to pick up momentum in CY2025. Meanwhile, the growing adoption of PCs for gaming and content creation coupled with the increasing focus on AI features and tools in PCs are expected to drive the consumer segment in 4Q24 and CY2025, thereby facilitating it to close off 2024 and 2025 in green.”