PC shipments (including tablets) in India grew 72 per cent on-year in Q1 2021 to reach 4 million units, driven by notebooks (including mobile workstations) even as the country continued to grapple with the Covid-19 pandemic, as per the latest report from Canalys .
Segment-wise PC shipments comprised 517,000 desktops, 2.5 million notebooks, 930.000 tablets, and 43,000 workstations. Almost all categories witnessed annual growth, primarily due to a weak performance in Q1 2020 when supply was hit due to pandemic restrictions in China.
Notebooks shipments grew 119 per cent over Q1 2020. Tablets also had one of their biggest quarters since 2016, with 52 per cent year-on-year growth. Desktop shipments fell 6 per cent annually.
“The second COVID wave has been ruthless, claiming many more lives and livelihoods than the first wave, forcing India to pause almost all economic activity. For PCs, the entire channel has been paralyzed, and despite healthy demand from consumers and businesses alike, fulfilling orders was the primary issue once again,” said Canalys Research Analyst Ashweej Aithal.
“In addition, OEMs prioritizing fast-moving markets, such as the US and Western Europe, and diverting the bulk of their inventory to these markets, has further aggravated the situation. For most of this year and next, India will suffer from supply issues,” Aithal added.
Coming to the performance of vendors, HP replaced Lenovo for the first spot, with shipments up 102 per cent on-year in Q1 2021.
China’s Lenovo fell to second place, growing 63 per cent on-year in Q1 2021, slower than the overall market. It has also been shying away from competing over government tenders owing to the concerns of bias against it with respect to the geopolitical tensions between India and China.
Dell came third and had the slowest growth among the top five vendors.
“Dell’s lack of focus on consumers is glaring. Its popularity within enterprises and among commercial end-users has helped it maintain its shipment volumes,” the report said.
