Growth of notebook PC sales surging in India

Dec 16, 2007, 7:12 GMT

New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS) The Indian notebook personal computer (PC) market has grown by around a whopping 85 percent during the third quarter (July-Sep) of 2007, says a report.

The report was released by US-based IDC Ltd's Indian subsidiary IDC India, a global research and market intelligence firm for IT, telecom and consumer technology.

The No.1 slot in terms of units sold was grabbed by Hewlett Packard (HP), commanding a market share of 21.6 percent, followed by HCL (12.3 percent) and Lenovo (10.3 percent).

'Portability rather than mobility has emerged as the number one driver for the sustained growth in notebook PC shipments in India,' Kapil Dev Singh, country manager, IDC India, said in a statement.

'Given the choice of portability, flexibility and ease of use and the narrowing of the price-performance gap that once existed between portables and desktops, consumers are almost overwhelmingly inclined to buy notebook PCs,' Singh added.

Notebook PC shipments to home and small office home office (SOHO) segment grew by a galloping 166 percent year-on-year and made up for 43 percent of total notebook shipments.

The next largest contributors to this trend were the enterprise and education segments, the report said.

'In an emerging market like India there still exist many untapped pockets of opportunity for desktops, as shown by the recent signs of revival of this market,' said Sanjit Sinha, associate vice president (research), IDC India.

During the period, consumer desktop PC shipments recorded a 10.5 percent year-on-year growth as compared to a percentage decline in shipments recorded during the previous quarter (April-June).

'The desktop market will aim to sustain market momentum by reaching out to the untapped small and medium business enterprises, e-governance projects and consumer infrastructure builds up in C, D and E class cities,' Sinha added.

© 2007 Indo-Asian News Service