BANGALORE, INDIA: Dell has achieved the second position in the Indian PC shipments defeating and pushing down HCL Infosystems, that had secured the second position for two consecutive quarters. HP continues to be the market leader, while Acer is chasing Dell in the third position, according to an IDC survey.

Speaking to CIOL, Sameer Garde, country general manager and general manager of large enterprise, Dell India, said that the company grabbed second position in the overall PC shipments in India in third quarter.

He said, “It has been the biggest quarter ever, in terms of sales performance. We have reached to the second position in the market shipments this quarter. As we all know that Dell India achieved 17 per cent growth in Q3.”

Garde added that the third quarter was largely consumer driven. “We witnessed around 80–90 per cent growth year-over-year and 65 per cent sequential growth in quarters. While the commercial/ large enterprise segment grew by 28-29 per cent.”

According to the recent IDC report, in the overall PC (notebooks and desktops combined) market, HP retained the top spot with a market share of 17.1 per cent, while Dell (11.3 per cent) and Acer (11.1 percent) took the second and third spots, respectively.

“In terms of desktop PC shipments HP retained its top position with a market share of 12.2 per cent, followed by HCL and Acer in second and third spots, respectively during 3Q CY09. In terms of notebook PC shipments, HP retained the top spot with a market share of 27 per cent in 3Q CY09; Dell retained the second spot, while Acer came third,” said the report.

However, Dell claims to closely chase market leader HP in the consumer PC segment and strong positioning in the enterprise PC segment.

Highlighting over the reasons behind Dell's performance, and their gain as second top brand, Garde said that market recovery, and the their customer-centric approach have been key factor. He said, “We see the businesses recovering for the past 3-4 months, this is very well reflected on our businesses.”

Dell says that its multi channel strategy (with direct stores, large format stores and retailer) for sales helped it. At present Dell has around 5000 outlets that stock and sell Dell products, apart from 1000 sales affiliates.

Mahesh Bhalla, director and general manager of consumer sales, Dell India said, “Dell has been launching various line-up models under its brands from Inspiron to latest Adamo, to kept the market excited about the new range.

Interestingly, from the marketing aspect, Dell credits no celebrity endorsement and customized solution to customers through 'Yours is Here' as fundamental factor. Almost all the other brands have got endorsements like HP/Compaq had Shah Rukh Khan, Acer by Hrithik Roshan, Lenovo by Saif Ali Khan, Toshiba by Vidya Balan, and the latest Sony took Kareena Kapoor for the Vaio Zero size range.

Looking forward, the company sees good demand pipeline from the PC refresh that would happen from Windows7 and as the market reaches to normalcy, it expects share from the tier 2 and 3 cities that would open up their investments. Dell also plans to tap the SMB/SOHO and the government segment for increased numbers.