‘Inventory correction’ of Apple MacBooks contribute to decline of premium notebook sales in India

India’s traditional personal computer (PC) market — inclusive of desktops, notebooks, and workstations — continued to drop,  shipping only 2.99 million units, a decline of 30.1% year-over-year (YoY) in the first quarter (January-March) of 2023, according to IDC.

Apple doesn’t rank in the top five PC makers (if you leave out the iPad) in India, but its impact is still felt, as we’ll see in a minute.

In the first quarter, while the demand for desktops was positive, the notebook category witnessed another weak quarter as it declined by 40.8% YoY, according to the research group. The consumer segment declined by 36.1% YoY primarily due to slowing demand and low market sentiment, and the commercial segment declined by 25.1% YoY due to reduced/delayed procurement by enterprises and small-to-medium sized businesses.

IDC says that government and education were the only segments seeing positive traction in 1Q23. Procurement from government bodies propelled the segment to grow by 25.2% YoY, while fulfillment of the Gujrat education order helped the education segment grow by 65.6% YoY. 

Premium notebooks (>US$1,000) declined by 65.8% YoY in the commercial segment and 59% YoY in the consumer segment. Significant inventory correction of Apple MacBooks and low demand from enterprises led to a slump in the shipment of premium notebooks, according to IDC. The online channel struggled for the second consecutive quarter, declining by 42.4% YoY in 1Q23.

As for Apple’s PC market share in India, in the third quarter of 2022, the tech giant sold 456,000 Macs and iPad, giving it 9% of India’s PC market.according to the Canalys research group. This compares to sales of 398,000 in the third quarter of 2021 for 61.1% year-over-year growth.

Unlike IDC, Canalys counts tablets such as the iPad in its tally of PC sales. With that in mind, ahead of Apple in Indian PC market share, as of quarter three 2022, are Lenovo (21.5%), HP (18.5%), and Acer (10.5%). It should be noted that most of Apple’s sales in the country are for iPads, not Macs. Unlike many research groups, Canalys counted iPads as PCs.