India’s Redington expects demand for personal computers to rebound in the next financial year as customers are likely to get used to new devices with artificial intelligence features, a senior executive said. distributor of technological products.
Global PC sales are showing signs of recovery after customers, hit by inflation, delayed upgrading their systems for several quarters, results from chipmakers including Samsung Electronics and Intel showed.
“The advent of AI and PCs will also bring about a technology refresh,” Ramesh Natarajan, CEO of Redington in Singapore, India and South Asia (SISA), told Reuters, adding that he expects its business PC would post single-digit percentage growth in FY2025 in the region. after reporting declines over the past six quarters.
AI-enabled PCs refer to machines equipped with chips capable of running big-language models and applications powered by the technology directly on the device, instead of in the cloud.
“Given that PC replacement cycles average about three to four years, we believe 2024 will be the year that sees some rebound,” said Neil Shah, vice president of research at Counterpoint Research.
SISA’s revenue from Redington’s endpoint solutions unit, which distributes PCs and printers, fell 7 percent to 100.72 billion rupees ($1.21 billion) in during the nine months ended December 31.
This segment, which accounts for around 15% of the group’s total revenue, gained ground during the pandemic, when businesses and individuals spent heavily on setting up home offices. But many still need to be upgraded.
Natarajan also expects further growth in Redington’s mobile phone business, which distributes smartphones from Apple, Google and others, as well-off Indians splurge on phones that cost more than 30 000 rupees ($361.30). The segment saw revenue increase 61% during the first nine months of fiscal 2024 in the SISA region.
Redington has focused on its cloud services business to expand beyond gadget distribution, which generates the bulk of its revenue.
(Only the title and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First publication: February 15, 2024 | 9:53 a.m. STI
