HP regains the top position in the PC market of India

Hewlett-Packard has regained the top spot in PC market of India in the fourth quarter of last year, after falling behind Dell in the two preceding quarters, according to figures released by research firms Gartner and IDC India.

HP has held the top position in the country since 2005, according to IDC's in India.

The company had a share of 17.3% of the market in the fourth quarter compared to the share to 14.2% and 11.5% share Acer India, IDC said on Wednesday.

Gartner has also put HP ahead of Dell in the fourth quarter. HP has regained market share due to a new deployment strategy and a new sales team for enterprise and small and medium-sized businesses, said Vishal Tripathi, principal research analyst at Gartner.

Dell gets even more of its activities by the HP corporate market, which is also strong in consumer, said Mukherjee, Sumanta lead PC IDC India analyst. Growth in the business enterprise sector in the fourth quarter was slower in the consumer market and other segments such as the public sector, he added.

HP also seems to have stabilised its channel strategy, after they moved from a national distribution model of a network of regional distributors, said Mukherjee. The new channel strategy is structured in a way much more now and has helped HP gain multiple partners that has translated into improved sales, said Tripathi.

Dell has the number one slot for the first time in Indian PC market by HP in the second quarter, doing well in all market segments. But Dell may have gained an edge on HP also due to business interruption of HP as the company changed its distribution model, analysts said.

Dell appeared undisturbed for the loss of HP's market share in the fourth quarter. The company does not sacrifice profits for market share and not going after each deal, said a spokesman for Dell on Thursday. The company is also focused on deals that involve selling Dell hardware with software and services, to increase profitability, he added.

Some variations in market share from quarter to quarter also occur because of changes in the inventory in the channel, particularly in the consumer business, the spokesperson added.

Dell reported on Wednesday that the revenue from India in its fiscal fourth quarter were increased by 37% over the same quarter last year. Revenue from its consumer activity rose 47%, while revenue from its public sector activity grew 41 percent, and small and medium-sized enterprises increased by 52%.

PC shipments from suppliers in India reached 2.5 million units during the fourth quarter, an increase of 26% over the same quarter last year, despite the high inflation and lower growth rates of industrial, IDC said.

Shipments in the fourth quarter decreased 11 percent compared to the previous quarter due to the seasonality of consumer demand and a winding down of demand pent-up industry company, said Mukherjee.

Gartner has a more conservative estimate of growth in the PC market of India. Nearly 2.7 million PCs were shipped in the fourth quarter of 2010, an increase of 6.4 percent from the fourth quarter of 2009, he said.

John Ribeiro covers outsourcing and General technology breaking news from India to the IDG News Service. Follow John on Twitter at @ Johnribeiro. E-mail address of John john_ribeiro@idg.com