India PC market declined by nearly 20 percent in Q4 2013 Gartner

Declining government spending on hardware hit Indian PC shipments during the October-December quarter, as sales fell by 20 per cent to 1.96 million units, research firm Gartner said today. The latest figures from Gartner study shows that sale of Personal Computers declined by 19.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013 compared to the same quarter last year.

The Gartner report said a total of 1.96 million computers were sold in the quarter, with the Indian PC market performing dismally.

The Gartner figures showed the notebook market declined by 27 percent, while the white boxes (assembled computers) which accounted for 44 percent of the total market has declined by 10 percent. “In the absence of any government orders this quarter, the Indian PC market performed dismally, re-emphasising the fact that with current economic sentiments and the current political scenario, enterprises are deferring their purchases,” said Vishal Tripathi, Principal Research Analyst at Gartner.

In the consumer market, Gartner saw a decline of 27 perecnt, revealing that the slowdown was across the industry. “While I believe tablets are a different category, a lot of consumers with basic computing needs are nowadays buying a tablet instead of a laptop,” said Tripathi.

Tripathi added that figures were not so good even last year but the bulk purchases made by the Uttar Pradesh government for its “free laptop” scheme gave a boost to the numbers. But this year such orders have not been large enough to offset the fall in demand. This is a huge blow to computer makers, who are already reeling under a severe slump in saturated markets of developed countries.

The impact of drop growth is forcing PC makers like Sony, HCL and Wipro to exit from the PC business. HCL and Wipro too are reportedly pulling out of the laptop market. While HCL has announced that it would phase out its PC manufacturing business as part of a three-year restructuring plan, Wipro has reportedly stopped manufacturing new laptops. While Sony has recently decided to sell off its laptop business.

Other players like Samsung, HP, Lenovo and Dell are changing focus to tablets and smartphones.