High petroleum prices, rising inflation and political uncertainty have hit Indian PC (desktop and notebook) sales in the April-June quarter of the calendar year 2008, says research firm IDC.

The overall India PC market grew by 8 per cent year-on-year in terms of unit shipments to a record 2.08 million during the quarter. But it was down compared with 10 per cent in the first quarter (Jan-March).

In the same period, desktop shipments dropped by 2.4 per cent, while notebook shipments showed a growth of 51.2 per cent.

"The subdued sentiment derives its signals from high petroleum prices, rising inflation, political uncertainty in the last quarter and news of the impending US economic slowdown. With the Indian economy is expected to grow only at 7.5-8.0 per cent in FY09, the Q2 2008 performance was affected by cautious PC buying," said Kapil Dev Singh, country manager, IDC India.

In the overall client PC (notebooks and desktops combined) market, HP retained the top spot with a market share of 18.7 per cent, followed by HCL [Get Quote] at second spot and Dell moving up to the third spot during Q2 of 2008.

In terms of desktop PC shipments, HP retained its top position with a market share of 13.9 per cent, followed by HCL and Dell in second and third spots. In terms of notebook PC shipments, HP retained the top spot with a market share of 31.2 per cent, Dell moved to the second spot while Acer retained the third spot.

Sumanta Mukherjee, analyst, computing products research, IDC India, said, "Major global and Indian PC vendors promoted low-cost notebook PCs during the quarter. The growth of these upgradable notebook PCs will be driven to a large extent by the penetration of broadband connectivity and availability of appropriate content."