Consumer demand, projects revive India PC sales in Q3: IDC

New Delhi: PC shipments in India witnessed 20.5 per cent growth in September 2017 quarter over the year- ago period to 3.03 million units, helped by strong consumer demand and special projects, research firm IDC today said.

After excluding large education projects of over 10,000 units, the market still grew 10.9 per cent year-on-year, IDC said.

However, the shipments could decline in the fourth quarter due to seasonality and reduced consumer demand after the high-consumer spending in the third quarter, it added.

"Seasonality and online festive sales drove positive consumer spending throughout the quarter despite declining consumer sentiment on the back of low employment opportunities, income and price levels," IDC India Associate Research Manager (Client Devices) Manish Yadav said.

On a sequential basis, shipments were up 72.3 per cent from the June 2017 quarter.

HP maintained its leadership position in the PC market with 31.1 per cent share, followed by Lenovo (24.1 per cent), Dell (20 per cent) and Acer (10.8 per cent).

"It's a proud moment for HP to have consistently sustained market leadership in the personal computing industry. We are at an exciting juncture in our journey as we reinvent ourselves on the basis of design, innovation and customer value," HP India MD Sumeer Chandra said.

During the said quarter, the consumer segment accounted for 1.51 million units, up 9.5 per cent from the year-ago period.

"Seasonality and online festive sales drove positive consumer spending throughout the quarter despite declining consumer sentiment on the back of low employment opportunities, income and price levels," IDC India Associate Research Manager (Client Devices) Manish Yadav said.

The commercial PC market saw 1.52 million units being shipped in the third quarter with the share of large education projects increasing to 50.2 per cent from 45.2 per cent a year ago.

"Special education projects in states like Tamil Nadu, Assam, etc along with pumped-up demand from Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) after the implementation of the new Goods and Services Tax (GST) has led to growth in Q3," Yadav said.