Slump shuffles PC Market Share

New Delhi: The global economic crisis, which has led to slowdown in demand for PCs in the Indian market for the past few quarters, has also caused a shuffle amid lead PC manufacturers in terms of market share.

According to the data by research firm IDC, during the quarter ending March 2009, as many as three of the top five vendors saw a decline in their market share.

This is despite the quarter showing some signs of improvement compared to the previous two quarters. In the fourth quarter of the financial year 2008-09, PC shipments stood at 16.7 lakh units, down 19% year-on-year but up 7% sequentially.

According to IDC figures, Dell, which jumped to second position for the first time in the October-December 2008 quarter, slipped back to the third spot in quarter ending March with a market share of 9.7%. HCL Infosystems was a close second with a share of 9.8%.

On the other hand, HP maintained its lead and even gained share in PCs (desktops and notebooks) with a market share of 18.2%, up from 15.6% in the December 2008 quarter.

“Going forward, hardware in general and PC shipments in particular will continue to remain under pressure. Winners would gain market share and improve profitability through the right price/volume mix and optimal exploitation of supply chain efficiencies,” said IDC India country manager Kapil Dev Singh.

Other two players which saw their market share slip were Acer and Lenovo. While Acer’s market share dipped marginally to 7.3% in the fourth quarter of FY 2009 from 7.7% in third quarter, Lenovo’s share showed a more pronounced drop of 1.9 points.

The company’s market share was down from 6.6% in third quarter to 4.7% in fourth quarter according to the report.

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Indian rupee steady tracking firm stocks; weak dlr

MUMBAI, June 10 - The Indian rupee was largely steady in afternoon trade on Wednesday, rising for the second straight day, as a firm stock market renewed hopes for more inflows and the dollar's weakness versus majors also supported.

• At 2:20 p.m., the partially convertible rupee was at 47.25/26 per dollar, stronger than Tuesday's close of 47.48/49. It dropped to a low of 47.80 in early trade, its weakest since May 28.

• The dollar eased on Wednesday as investors shifted from the U.S. unit toward perceived riskier and higher-yielding assets on views the global economy and financial system are improving. [USD/]

• Indian shares <.BSESN> extended gains to 3 percent on Wednesday afternoon, tracking strong markets across Asia and Europe on a rally in oil and metal prices amid signs of a global economic recovery. [.BO]

• Dealers said there was some dollar demand from oil refiners which was limiting the rise for the rupee.

• In the currency futures market, the most traded near-month contract on the National Stock Exchange and MCX-SX was quoting at 47.365 and 47.3675 respectively, with the total traded volume on the two exchanges at about $500 million.

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