Notebooks market buoyant: IDC

The Indian PC market has crossed yet another milestone with one million
shipments in a single quarter.

During the April-May-June (AMJ) quarter of 2005, the Indian PC market saw a
9% sequential and 31% year-on-year growth to reach 10.5 lakh units, according to
IDC's India Quarterly PC Market Tracker report.

"The AMJ quarter typically is characterized by sluggishness in the
desktops market. The overall desktop segment in AMJ 2005, nevertheless,
continued to expand. This was primarily due to the fact that a lot of deals from
JFM were actually consummated during AMJ", said Dinender Sharma, Manager,
Computing Products & Channels Research, IDC India.

In the overall Client PC (notebooks and desktops) market, HP retained its top
slot with a sequential increase of 19% and a year-on-year 45% growth. HCL
continued to stay at second position, with a 40% year-on-year growth.

Lenovo occupied the third position. IDC said that the data for Lenovo
included shipments for IBM PCD (including desktop and notebook PCs and excluding
x86 Servers and Personal Workstations) starting in 2Q 2005. This reflected the
legal status of the companies, which merged during the second quarter of 2005.

The commercial desktops category witnessed 1% sequential growth and 22%
year-on-year growth. HCL led the ranks followed closely by HP. Lenovo and Dell,
however, grew faster at sequential growth rates of 31% and 75% respectively. The
consumer desktops segment witnessed a 16% growth sequentially and 30%
year-on-year growth. HP has again maintained a lead while HCL was a close
second.

"In the previous quarter, consumers adopted a 'wait and watch'
policy due to confusion over VAT and the impact of new WTO regulations on import
tariffs. The VAT issue having become more transparent, price drops on account of
rationalization of duty structures and onset of summer vacations were key
contributing factors to the growth displayed by this segment," said
Dinender.

The notebook PC segment was the star performer. It grew 60% sequentially and
138% year-on-year and crossed the one lakh barrier-yet another first. According
to him, notebook PCs emerged as a preferred choice over desktops due to factors
of convenience and productivity.

Centrino-based notebooks constituted two-thirds of the total shipments. In
terms of market rankings, HP stayed at the top, followed by Lenovo and Acer.

With price points either falling or stabilizing across all form factors, IDC
expects the momentum to continue in the coming months.

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