Strong recovery driven by AI adoption, enterprise modernization, and government initiatives across PCs, servers, storage, and printing segments

India's information technology hardware market experienced a remarkable transformation in FY2024-25, marking a decisive shift from the pandemic-induced volatility to sustained growth across multiple segments. The India IT Hardware Market is expected to reach USD 21.17 billion in 2025 and grow at a CAGR of 7.10% to reach USD 29.84 billion by 2030. This robust expansion reflects the nation's accelerating digital transformation, driven by government initiatives, enterprise modernization, and the emergence of artificial intelligence-powered computing devices.
The year proved pivotal for India's hardware ecosystem, with recovery patterns varying significantly across different product categories. While traditional PC segments showed steady but measured growth, servers and storage experienced substantial expansion driven by data center investments, and emerging technologies like AI-capable devices began reshaping market dynamics. India's technology industry revenue (including hardware) is estimated to reach $254 Bn (3.8% y-o-y growth) in FY2024, an addition of over $9 Bn over last year.

PC and Laptop Market: Steady Recovery Amid AI Transformation

Market Performance and Shipment Trends
India's personal computer market demonstrated resilience in FY2024-25, overcoming previous year challenges to post positive growth. India's PC Market Grew 3.8% YoY in 2024 to 14.4 Million Units, representing a significant recovery from the 6.6% decline experienced in 2023. This turnaround was particularly notable given the inventory corrections and import restriction concerns that had clouded the market in the previous year.
The commercial segment emerged as the primary growth driver, posting impressive gains throughout the year. The commercial segment grew by 5.1% YoY in FY2024 and 11.1% YoY in 4Q2024. The demand from global enterprises and government departments, including GeM (Government e-Marketplace), led to growth in the enterprise and government segments by 10.6%YoY each in 2024. This enterprise-led recovery was underpinned by delayed IT procurement decisions finally materializing as businesses resumed normal investment cycles.
Consumer demand also showed encouraging signs, albeit with different growth patterns. The consumer segment grew by 2.6% YoY in 2024 and 2.2% YoY in 4Q2024, driven by the eTailer channel, which grew by 21.7% YoY in 2024 and 29% YoY in 4Q24. The strong performance of online retail channels highlighted the continued shift in consumer purchasing behavior, with e-commerce platforms becoming increasingly important for hardware distribution.

Vendor Market Share and Performance Analysis
The competitive landscape remained dominated by established players, with some notable shifts in market positioning throughout FY2024-25:

HP Inc. led the market with a 30.1% share in 2024 as it led both the consumer and commercial segments. While its government and enterprise segments grew by 14.7% and 14.3% respectively, its consumer segment declined by 7.5% YoY due to increasing competition, especially in the eTailer channel.
Lenovo stood at second with a 17.2% share in 2024. Lenovo grew across both the consumer and commercial segments by 7% and 7.4% YoY respectively. The company's consistent performance across segments reflected its balanced approach to both consumer and enterprise markets.

Technology Evolution and AI Integration
A significant trend reshaping the PC landscape was the emergence of AI-powered computing devices. "The consumer PC market has been on a growth trajectory driven by gaming and AI-powered PCs," said Bharath Shenoy, research manager, IDC India & South Asia. "The demand for gaming notebooks has been robust, with double-digit growth in FY2024. Also, since mid-2024, shipments of AI-powered notebooks increased substantially."
This technological evolution reflects broader market shifts toward more sophisticated computing requirements. Gaming remained a robust growth segment, indicating consumers' willingness to invest in higher-performance hardware. The integration of AI capabilities in mainstream PCs marked the beginning of a new product category that would likely define future market dynamics.

Server Market: Infrastructure Boom Drives Growth

Market Expansion and Investment Trends
India's server market experienced substantial growth driven by the country's expanding digital infrastructure requirements. The India Data Center Server Market size is expected to reach USD 6.08 billion in 2024 and grow at a CAGR of 7.70% to reach USD 9.48 billion by 2030. This growth was underpinned by massive investments in data center capacity across the country.
India's data centre capacity is projected to experience significant growth, doubling from 0.9 GW in 2023 to approximately 2 GW by 2026. This expansion is driven by the increasing digitization and data localization trends within the country.

Vendor Landscape and Market Dynamics
The Indian server market has historically been dominated by multinational vendors, with competition intensifying as hyperscale data center deployments accelerated:

HPE has a server revenue share of 25.4 percent. Dell has 24.5 percent share in the Indian server market. HPE registered few server deals from telecoms, manufacturing, IT and ITeS companies recording revenue of $67 million. Key wins for Dell Technologies came from professional services, telecoms, banks, and high-tech semiconductor companies to reach revenue of $64.6 million.

Regional Distribution and Growth Hubs
Server deployments concentrated in key technology hubs, reflecting infrastructure development patterns:
Mumbai is expected to account for 57 percent of the new supply followed by Chennai at 25 percent. Navi Mumbai holds the largest data centre market with a 44% alone. The total capacity is 289 MW, with 3.6 million sq ft in its functional area.
Bangalore, known as the Silicon Valley of India, has a major data centre presence due to its large IT infrastructure. As of 2020 Bangalore has a total capacity of 162 MW having 1.74 Million sq ft used for data centre. It possesses a 25% of the market share.

Storage Market: Exponential Growth in Data Infrastructure

Market Size and Growth Trajectory
The storage market demonstrated even more robust expansion prospects than servers. The India Data Center Storage Market is projected to grow significantly from USD 1,978.61 million in 2023 to USD 6,429.38 million by 2032, reflecting a robust compound annual growth rate of 13.05%.
The Indian Data Storage Market, valued at USD 22.8B in 2024, is projected to reach USD 50.79B by 2030, growing at a 14.1% CAGR. This remarkable growth reflects the increasing data generation and storage requirements across enterprises and cloud service providers.

Vendor Competition and Market Share
The storage market maintained a highly competitive landscape with several global leaders vying for market share:

Though data for FY2024 is not available, in 2023, IDC ranked Dell top of the storage array makers with market share of 26%. That was quite a long way ahead of Huawei (9.7%), HPE (8.3%), Lenovo/Lenovo-NetApp (7.7%), NetApp (7%), Pure Storage (6.1%), and Hitachi and IBM (both just under 5%).

Technology Trends and Innovation
The storage market benefited from several technological innovations:
All-Flash Arrays: Increasing adoption of NVMe-based storage solutions
Hyper-Converged Infrastructure: Integration of compute and storage resources
Cloud Storage Integration: Hybrid cloud storage solutions gaining traction
AI-Optimized Storage: Purpose-built storage for artificial intelligence workloads
Key players in the Storage market include companies such as Dell, HPE, NetApp, and IBM. These vendors continued to invest heavily in R&D to address evolving enterprise storage requirements.

Printer Market: Gradual Recovery and Technology Shifts

Market Dynamics and Growth Patterns
India's printer market experienced mixed trends during FY2024-25, with different technology segments showing varying performance patterns. The printer market in India is expected to reach a projected revenue of US$ 4,927.3 million by 2030. A compound annual growth rate of 7% is expected of India printer market from 2024 to 2030.
The inkjet printer segment continued to demonstrate strong fundamentals, benefiting from lower initial costs and operational advantages. Inkjet printers are witnessing consistent year-over-year growth in unit shipments globally, including in India. In India, this growth is predominantly driven by the online channel, especially with sales events leading up to the Diwali Festival.

Vendor Market Share and Competition
The printer market maintained a well-established competitive hierarchy with global brands dominating:

HP Inc. led with 7,502,356 unit shipments and 34.2% market share in 4Q24, showing +6.3% growth. Epson followed with 4,944,913 units and 22.5% share (+5.4% growth). Canon Group held 4,466,240 units and 20.4% share (-0.9% growth). Brother maintained 2,146,550 units and 9.8% share (+6.7% growth).

Technology Transition Trends
A notable shift occurred within the printer market as traditional laser printer demand showed signs of decline while ink tank printers gained traction. While laser printer shipments are declining, ink tank printers are on the rise, compensating for this dip. 
Additionally, the Indian government's crackdown on the reconditioned copier market is likely to boost demand for genuine laser printers.
Major players like HP Inc., Canon, and Epson are at the forefront, significantly propelling the growth of inkjet printers. 
The shift toward ink tank technology reflected changing user preferences toward more cost-effective printing solutions, particularly important in price-sensitive segments of the Indian market.

Key Market Trends and Growth Drivers

Digital Transformation Acceleration
Several key trends shaped India's IT hardware market performance during FY2024-25. The acceleration of digital transformation across enterprises, government agencies, and educational institutions created sustained demand across multiple hardware categories. 
Remote work adoption, digital education initiatives, and e-governance programs all contributed to this growth momentum.
The rise of artificial intelligence as a mainstream technology trend began influencing purchasing decisions. Organizations started evaluating AI-capable hardware not just as a future need but as an immediate requirement for staying competitive.

Government Policy Impact
Government initiatives played a crucial role in market dynamics. Cabinet approved PLI Scheme – 2.0 for IT Hardware with a budgetary outlay of Rs. 17,000 crore (US$ 2.06 billion). This production-linked incentive scheme aimed to boost domestic manufacturing and reduce import dependence.
The Union Budget 2024-25, presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on July 23, 2024, proposes an allocation of Rs. 1,16,342 crore (US$ 13.98 billion) for IT and Telecom sectors.

Data Center Infrastructure Boom
The estimated capital expenditure required for this capacity addition is around Rs 50,000 crore over the next three years. The cost of setting up data centres has also risen, with the average cost per MW increasing from Rs 40-45 crore to Rs 60-70 crore.
Despite rising costs, strong demand continued to drive investment, with revenue for industry players growing at a CAGR of nearly 25% from FY17 to FY23.

Outlook for 2026: AI-Driven Transformation

Artificial Intelligence Integration
Looking ahead to 2026, artificial intelligence is expected to fundamentally reshape India's IT hardware landscape. By the end of 2024, Gartner forecasts AI PC shipments will reach 22 per cent. In India, AI PCs could have a high impact on the PC market by bringing content and ease of accessibility in native languages.
The enterprise segment is anticipated to lead this transformation. 
"Organisations who understand how they can extract the most from AI-powered laptops will use them in productivity tools and will automate a lot of work. AI PCs will reduce a lot of their efforts in areas like researching, pre-sales, marketing, and other such functions."

Market Growth Projections
The overall market outlook remains highly positive, with continued strong growth expected across most segments. IDC expects commercial and school renewal projects to be the biggest driver for 2025. AI PC purchases have faced hurdles since their launch, but IDC expects a more robust ecosystem to emerge by latter 2025, leading most new PCs to be GenAI-capable by 2026.

Infrastructure and Data Center Expansion
Data Centre capacity is expected to surpass 4,500 megawatts by 2030, driven by rising demand from cloud services, Artificial Intelligence (AI) workloads, and edge computing.
The data center and storage markets are expected to maintain their rapid expansion trajectory. The Indian Data Center Market was valued at USD 6.48 Billion in 2024, and is projected to reach USD 10.70 Billion by 2030, rising at a CAGR of 8.72%.

Enterprise AI Adoption Timeline
By 2026, 100% of enterprise PC purchases will be AI PCs, according to Gartner forecasts. This represents a fundamental shift in enterprise computing, where AI capabilities will become standard rather than premium features.

Challenges and Opportunities
Looking forward, the market faces both opportunities and challenges. On the positive side, continued government investment in digital infrastructure, rising enterprise IT budgets, and growing consumer adoption of technology create favorable conditions for sustained growth.
However, challenges include potential supply chain disruptions, component cost inflation, and the need for continuous technology upgrades to keep pace with rapidly evolving requirements. 
The success of AI hardware adoption will largely depend on the development of compelling use cases that justify the premium pricing of AI-capable devices.

Key Success Factors for 2026:
Development of localized AI applications and content
Competitive pricing strategies for AI-enabled hardware
Robust ecosystem development around AI technologies
Continued government support for digital transformation initiatives

Conclusion: A Market in Transformation
FY2024-25 marked a pivotal year for India's IT hardware market, characterized by strong recovery across most segments and the emergence of transformative technologies. The PC segment's steady recovery, the infrastructure boom in servers and storage, and the gradual modernization of the printer market all contributed to a positive market narrative.
The foundation has been laid for sustained growth through 2026 and beyond, with artificial intelligence poised to become the next major growth driver. As India continues its digital transformation journey, the IT hardware market appears well-positioned to capitalize on emerging opportunities while navigating the challenges of a rapidly evolving technology landscape.
The combination of government support, enterprise modernization needs, and infrastructure expansion creates a robust foundation for continued growth. 
With AI integration accelerating and data center investments continuing, India's IT hardware market is set to play an increasingly important role in the global technology ecosystem, driven by strong domestic demand and emerging export opportunities.