Govt demand buoys India PC shipments in 2022; Apple enters top 5 club

A slowdown in consumer electronics shipments in the December quarter saw PC shipments fall 28.5% year-on-year (YoY), in line with a near 30% drop in smartphone shipments. The decline follows the fall in PC shipments worldwide – down 28.5% YoY, according to a 12 January report by Gartner.

The India market, however, remained resilient in comparison to global market, which, according to Gartner data, saw a 16.2% YoY shipment decline.

Demand for PCs from government agencies and educational firms and institutes largely drove shipments in India, after consumer interest in the segment tapered off following two years of consistent growth given work- from-home requirements in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic.

While government demand increased 117.6% YoY, shipment of PCs to education firms rose 28.3% YoY. However, enterprise PC demand fell nearly 6%, especially towards the end of 2022, as companies slowed down on device procurement due to saturation, as well as to trim discretionary expenses as inflationary concerns increased.

Interestingly, enterprise demand for Apple’s MacBook line of laptops saw the brand increase its shipments by nearly 11% YoY in 2022, after deals such as its enterprise device supply order from domestic information technology large-cap, Wipro, early last year. In August last year, market researcher Counterpoint had said that Apple’s Mac shipments were expected to grow 50% YoY, amid increasing enterprise interest. According to IDC’s report, Apple ranked among the top five PC brands in the country for the first time in the December quarter, buoyed by the enterprise PC demand in the country.

“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. However, the company may struggle to keep up its growth pace for consecutive years, given that it operates at a much higher price margin than other brands, and it would be difficult for the firm to get exponentially higher number of customers every successive year,” Navkendar Singh, associate vice-president, client devices at IDC India, told Mint on 6 January.