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Punching Out: How Are the Big Boys in Electronics Doing?
India’s traditional PC market—including desktops, notebooks, and workstations—recorded its strongest year ever in 2025, shipping 15.9 million units, growing 10.2% year over year (YoY), according to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker.
This marks the first time annual shipments have crossed the 15-million-unit milestone, surpassing the pandemic-driven peaks seen in FY2021 and FY2022.
The market also delivered strong momentum in the final quarter, with shipments reaching 4.1 million units in 4Q25, reflecting a robust 18.5% YoY growth.
Category Performance Highlights
- Notebooks: The largest category continued to lead market expansion, growing 12.4% YoY in 2025 and registering a strong 23.9% YoY growth in 4Q25.
- Desktops: Posted moderate gains, increasing 3.6% YoY in 2025 and 6.2% YoY in 4Q25.
- Workstations: Emerged as the fastest-growing category, expanding 24.2% YoY in 2025 and 18.7% YoY in 4Q25, driven by demand from professional and high-performance computing use cases.
Premium notebooks (priced above US$1,000) grew 8.2% YoY, supported by rising demand for high-performance devices despite dollar appreciation and overall price increases.
AI-enabled notebooks stood out as a key growth driver, with shipments surging 129.3% YoY.
Basic AI notebooks accounted for 86.6% of total AI notebook shipments, driven primarily by enterprise adoption and consumer-led promotional incentives. Meanwhile, GenAI notebooks gained notable traction in the consumer segment, led by Apple’s MacBook portfolio, which captured a 70.9% share in this category.
Commercial and Consumer Market Performance
The commercial segment remained the primary growth driver for India’s PC market, shipping 8.6 million units in 2025.
- The enterprise segment expanded 20.9% YoY.
- Small and medium businesses (SMBs) grew 8.2% YoY.
Strong enterprise demand, along with partial fulfilment of the ELCOT manifesto deal, contributed to robust momentum in 4Q25, during which shipments reached 2.6 million units.
The consumer segment shipped 7.3 million units in 2025, growing 3.6% YoY. Strong online demand during festive sales and aggressive channel stocking supported annual performance. However, delayed supplies resulted in a slight 2.6% YoY decline in 4Q25.
The eTail channel continued its rapid expansion, growing 12% YoY in 2025 and 5.2% YoY in 4Q25, driven by wider geographic reach and competitive discounting strategies.
“PC shipments in the consumer segment grew YoY for the second consecutive year, driven by rising demand across use cases such as media consumption, content creation, and gaming,” said Bharath Shenoy, research manager, IDC India & South Asia. “PCs are evolving beyond traditional productivity tasks. Adoption for advanced content creation, high-end gaming, and virtual learning is revitalizing the category. AI PCs and growing vendor investments in AI capabilities are expected to further accelerate demand. However, processor shortages in late 2025 led to temporary supply constraints.”
