New Delhi: The Indian personal computer industry witnessed a year-on-year growth of 32 per cent to 12-lakh units in the July-September quarter of 2005, an 11-per cent increase over the previous quarter (April-June). This was revealed by IT market research analyst IDC's India Quarterly PC Market Tracker Programme.

All major commercial desktop vendors revealed an enhanced focus on the SMB market. Explaining this, Piyush Pushkal, senior analyst, computing products and channels research, IDC India says, "This strategic shift is primarily to increase their reach beyond the metros and attain growth"

The consumer desktop market grew a healthy 40 per cent year-on-year while the commercial desktop sales were up 13 per cent and notebook sales increased 176 per cent.

As compared to pervious quarter the growth in consumer desktop was 18 per cent, commercial desktop was one per cent and notebook computers was 50 per cent.

In the overall client PC (notebooks and desktops) market, the rankings remained unchanged:

Client notebook and desktops category:

• HP remained the market leader with a share of 19 per cent
  
• HCL retained the second slot with 13 per cent
  
• Lenovo had the third highest shipments with 9 per cent.

In the consumer desktop category HCL led over HP, with LG following the market leaders at the third slot.

Adds Pushkal, "Despite 3Q being the commercial quarter, even consumer desktop sales were buoyant on account of aggressive promotional campaigns rolled out by all major vendors."

Consumer desktop category:

• HP continued to lead notebook category with a market share of 42 per cent
  
• Lenovo followed with an 18-per cent share
  
• Acer's sales ranked third with a share of 15 per cent.

HP, along with Lenovo, Acer and Toshiba, grew rapidly in this space mainly due to falling price points.

Pushkal said, "The momentum in the Indian notebook PC market is in sync with the worldwide trend of acceptance in the SMB segment, supplemented by bulk purchases by large enterprises. Clearly, notebook PCs are providing tough competition to the desktop segment due to the attributes of convenience and productivity."

With price points either continuing to fall or stabilizing in the coming months, IDC expects the momentum to continue across all segments.