Improving business climate, education projects to aid PC market in 2015

NEW DELHI: Despite projections of muted first quarter sales, India's PC market is expected to make a comeback during the year on account of special education projects and improving business environment for the enterprise segment, IDC has said.

PC shipments had touched 9.6 million units last year, down 16.5 per cent compared to 2013, the research firm said.

"In the short term, inventory issues and constrained buying from end-users is likely to impact January-March 2015 sales," it said.

However, IDC anticipates the overall PC market in the country to see growth this year, compared to 2014.

"Special education projects and improved business sentiments in the enterprise business will continue to drive commercial PC volumes in 2015," it has projected.

Government and government-aided education buying will hold the key to growth in the commercial PC business, it said.

"On the consumer business, opportunity is ripe for vendors to drive penetration and improve overall business. We expect new entry level price points to be created for full- blown PCs with innovative form factors and that will continue to drive excitement in this category," IDC Research Manager Kiran Kumar said.

On the consumer PC market, Kumar said the segment stood at 4.9 million units in 2014, with year-on-year growth of 1.7 per cent over 2013.

"Continuing from 2013, consumer sentiments remained frail until the elections. However, stable government in the center aided hopes on reforms and economic progress boosting overall end-user confidence," he added.

Also, subsiding inflation and rapid growth of online trade coupled with the introduction of sub-USD 400 devices created just the right buzz for the PC business in 2014, Kumar said.

The overall commercial PC market clocked 4.7 million units last year, declining 29.6 per cent from 2013.

"The primary reason for the plunge was that barring fulfilments for ELCOT Phase III, the contribution of large education projects was not exciting in 2014 compared to 2013," IDC Market Analyst Manish Yadav said.

Also, enterprise users have been cautiously optimistic by pinning their hopes on the direction of reforms, which are still quite ambiguous, he added.

"This is with the exception of BFSI, where IT spending returned to a rapid surge in 2014 for both capacity expansion and hardware refresh," Yadav said.