The Indian PC market (excluding tablets) demonstrated strong growth across all segments in Q4 2024, primarily driven by enterprise procurement, Canalys report said.
The overall market saw a 25 percent surge due to global firms upgrading systems as part of the refresh cycle and heightened demand linked to the Windows 10 end-of-support (EoS) deadline. Additionally, government tenders, particularly for notebooks, increased, while the education sector recorded an impressive 34 percent growth, largely fueled by public education institutions.
However, the consumer PC segment remained relatively flat, with 1 percent growth, as online channels focused on inventory management during year-end sales.
For the full year 2024, the PC market in India grew by 13 percent, exceeding 20 million units in total shipments. This growth was mainly fueled by a 5 percent increase in notebooks and a 1 percent rise in desktops.
Forecast for 2025-2026:
2025: The Indian PC market is expected to grow by 9 percent, primarily driven by enterprise demand as the refresh cycle intensifies ahead of Windows 10 EoS.
2026: The Indian PC market is expected to achieve a further 5 percent growth, driven by spillover demand from the refresh cycle.
Apple is expected to gain a stronger foothold in the commercial segment, benefiting from its Mac security features, AI capabilities, and competitive pricing against AI-capable Windows devices.
The SMB segment is also expected to see increased demand, though rising device costs could pose challenges.
The consumer segment is projected to grow by 7 percent, largely fueled by the increasing popularity of gaming PCs and the early adoption of AI-capable PCs, which are gaining traction across various sectors as the industry focuses on future-proofing devices.
India tablet market trends
The Indian tablet market maintained growth of 4.3 percent in Q4 2024, with shipments reaching 1.1 million units. The consumer segment saw 2 percent growth, driven by a strong inventory push for year-end sales. The education sector also performed well, benefiting from government and private institutional demand. However, delays in finalizing government tenders in late Q4 led to a sharp decline in non-education public sector procurement.
For the full year 2024, the tablet market saw 41 percent growth, emerging as the strongest-performing category.
Forecast for 2025:
The Indian tablet market is expected to grow by 5 percent, mainly fueled by consumer demand, as many pandemic-era devices are due for replacement or upgrades.
Vendors are increasingly focusing on competitive specifications, moving beyond education-centric use cases to cater to media consumption, entertainment, and content creation, which have seen exceptional growth.
Premiumization in the consumer segment will remain a key driver, bringing both volume and value growth for vendors.
On the commercial front, enterprise demand is set to remain robust, particularly from the airline, financial, manufacturing, and pharmaceutical industries.
The education segment, historically a key contributor to tablet sales, is expected to slow in 2025 due to pending government tenders from 2024. While these tenders are expected to match previous volumes, full execution may extend into 2026.
Regulatory Impact on PC and Tablet Markets
The Indian government has introduced a policy to reduce import limits on PCs and tablets by 5 percent annually starting in 2025, using data from the financial year 2024-2025 as the baseline. To ensure a smooth transition, the unrestricted import period has been extended until 31 December 2024 (postponing the original 30 September 2024 deadline).
This policy is expected to reshape India’s local manufacturing industry, giving vendors time to establish a robust supply chain while advancing the government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative. Additionally, an online import management system is being developed to streamline processes and reduce manual customs procedures, further enhancing efficiency.
Indian PC vendors
In Q4 2024, HP led the Indian PC market with a 30.3 percent market share but saw a decline of 1.8 percent in annual growth. Lenovo followed with an 18.8 percent share, recording a strong 13.5 percent growth. Acer held a 15.9 percent share with a 12.7 percent increase, while Dell secured 13.3 percent of the market with a 4.4 percent rise.
Apple experienced the highest growth at 62.3 percent, reaching a 6.9 percent market share. Other vendors collectively accounted for 14.9 percent of the market, with a slight decline of 0.1 percent. Overall, the Indian PC market grew by 7.1 percent compared to Q4 2023.
