According to a report by Gartner India, Dell has overtaken HP as the number one personal computer brand in India, in the second quarter of 2010 (April to June), where it sold 3.53 lakh PCs, as compared to HP’s 3.31 lakhs. HP had held the crown for five years in a row, and for an indication of how fast Dell has grown, note that HP led Dell by 1.5 lakh units in the same period in 2009.
This is especially heartening for Dell, as they had to change their entire direct-to-home delivery platform for the low-penetration Indian market, and instead sell through conventional authorized shops and dealers.
HP is known as a ‘premium’ brand, and is often grouped with other brands like Sony and Toshiba. Its biggest competition however, apart from Dell, is from the Taiwanese manufacturer, Acer.
Gartner also released information about Dell and HP’s last quarter market, where Dell had a 14.3% share of the overall PC market, compared to HP’s 13.4%, and Acer’s 11%. In the notebook category, Dell’s share was 27%, while HP had approximately 20%.
In the coming months, recent news of Dell’s earlier shady practices might affect its sales adversely, but the odds are the common man would turn a blind eye to it.