India's Computer market to grow high; Dell on top

Chennai, Sept 17: India's personal computer (PC) market will be a new hub for Asian PC makers as western PC makers are gradually slowing down and hence Asian makers are starting to make a contrive plan to grab the Indian market.

A recognized research firm Gartner said global PC sales in 2011 grew 3.8% as against its forecast of around 10% growth. Generally, western PC giant like HP and Dell has always been dominated the market worldwide. However recent deceleration of HP to stop its PC segment, it has lost 1% of its market share in Indian market according to IDC, a research firm of India. Taiwaness PC maker Acer took the place of HP to become No. 2 after Dell.

Meanwhile, the Asian players like Acer, Sony are fastly moving forward in tying up with educational institution to sell their product in the Indian market.

Acer is growing high as it getting highest order from the education sector where it has gained 40% share. Large numbers of orders from government bodies and educational institution has contributed this success and emerged as main competitor of HP.

Lenovo is the fastest growing PC maker among the Top five and currently at number 4 according to IDC. Over one year, Lenovo has propelled its market share from 7.2% to 10.8% and grown 55% in shipments last quarter compared to the corresponding quarter last year.

"Everyone is focusing on India. This is where the numbers are still good. There is intense competition going on the price front to gain market share. Japanese players are becoming really aggressive," said S Rajendran, chief marketing officer of Acer.

Sony, initially suffering from its high pricing in Indian market but slowly it has reduced the prices of its laptops and now Prices of its offerings are down almost 8%-10%.

Earlier, Toshiba had also offered its laptops comparatively in cheaper rate of Rs.2000 on its entry model or slightly more than 10%, compared to other players by offering to consumers processors that were almost 1-2 generations behind in terms of latest technology. Now it has also stepped up and is offering the latest configuration at competitive prices. This move has helped it gain market share in an uncertain market.

"Western Europe is not only struggling through excess PC inventory, but economic upheaval as well," said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner. "US consumer PC shipments were much weaker than expected in the second quarter."

Though India's PC market has been go down in the last quarter to 970,000 units from 1.03 million units but still in demand. "Performance in the current quarter is much better than estimates and the outlook is good too," said Rajendran.

OneIndia News