India's PC shipments fall by nearly 30% in 4Q22

India saw a steep fall in traditional PC shipments, and with inventories still high, the market is bracing for another demand drop in the current quarter. Even Apple, which stood out in India for the past quarters, may not be immune to the weak demand.

According to IDC, 14.9 million PCs were shipped in 2022, up a marginal of 0.3% annually. The fourth-quarter PC shipment dropped 28.5% year-on-year from 4.1 million units to 2.93 million units.

India's PC demands for 2022 were driven by the government and education segments, which saw annual growth of 117.6% and 28.3%, respectively. Despite the shipment growth from desktops and workstations, notebook shipments - the largest demand engine in India's PC market - dropped by 8.4% year-on-year due to softening demand across all segments, including commercial and consumer markets.

According to Bharath Shenoy, senior market analyst at IDC India, PC demands saw strong double-digit growth in the first half of 2022 but tapered off and plunged in the year's second half.

HP led the market with a 30.2% share in 2022, far higher than other competitors, such as Dell, Lenovo, Acer, and Asus. Meanwhile, after five quarters since the second quarter of 2021, Apple won fifth place in the latest quarter.

Mint quoted Navkendar Singh, associate vice president of client devices at IDC India, saying that Apple is largely expected to be the sole outlier in the entire consumer electronics industry due to a fresh phase of demand among companies for its Mac lineup. Mint reported that MacBook shipments increased 11% year-on-year in 2022.

According to Singh, PC demand has been slowing in the last few months, adding that with channel inventory being as high as 8~9 weeks, vendors are expected to remain cautious in the first half of 2023.

Jim Hsiao, a DIGITIMES Research analyst specializing in PC/NB supply chain, said global notebook shipments are expected to continue declining in the first quarter of 2023 due to seasonality and the economic downturn in mature markets.

Source: IDC, February 2023