After showing strong growth during the previous quarters, the number of desktop PCs sold in the country fell 5 per cent during the first quarter of this financial year, even as the sales of notebook computers rose 16 per cent over the same period.
According to market research firm IDC's quarterly PC-market tracker for India, laptops also increased their contribution to nearly 2.2 lakh out of the total 12.5 lakh branded PCs sold in the country in the June quarter.
Year-on-year, the overall PC numbers were up 19 per cent while the consumer notebook category, which has seen continued price cuts, saw more than five times the volumes compared to same quarter last year.
"It is too early to say that the desktop PC market will start shrinking from this quarter," Piyush Pushkal, senior analyst at IDC, said.
"It could be just seasonal fluctuation." The branded desktop market in the country, estimated to reach the 50 lakh market this year, is dominated by foreign brands like HP, Lenovo and Dell and by HCL, which leads in corporate sales.
To add strength to his argument, Pushkal points out that almost all the decline this quarter has come from the commercial segment, with the number of home desktops remaining more or less the same as last quarter.
"Though flat on a quarterly basis, the consumer desktop segment was still up 16 per cent compared to last year while the commercial segment was up 5 per cent.
Even as companies waited for future price cuts on processors during the quarter, the small and medium business segment saw a 33 per cent increase in its consumption of desktop PCs," he added.