Indian firm Redington sees AI-powered PCs driving Tech Upgrades

By siliconindia  |  Thursday, 15 February 2024, 12:31:53 PM IST

Indian firm Redington sees AI-powered PCs driving Tech Upgrades
A senior executive at Redington anticipates a resurgence in demand for personal computers in the upcoming fiscal year, as consumers are expected to embrace new devices featuring artificial intelligence capabilities. Recent reports from chipmakers such as Samsung Electronics and Intel indicate a rebound in global PC sales following a period of stagnation caused by inflation-related delays in system upgrades by customers.
"The advent of AI, PCs will also drive tech refresh", Redington's Singapore, India and South Asia (SISA) CEO Ramesh Natarajan told Reuters, adding that he sees its PC business posting a single-digit percentage growth in fiscal 2025 in the region after reporting declines in the last six quarters.
AI-enabled PCs are computers equipped with chips capable of executing extensive language models and applications driven by the technology directly on the device rather than relying on cloud-based processing. "Considering the replacement cycles for PCs have averaged around three to four years, we believe 2024 will be the year that will see some rebound", said Neil Shah, vice president of research at Counterpoint Research.
Revenue from Redington's end-point solutions unit, responsible for distributing PCs and printers, experienced a 7% decline to 100.72 billion rupees ($1.21 billion) for the nine-month period ending on December 31st. This segment, comprising approximately 15% of the group's total revenue, had seen growth during the pandemic as both businesses and individuals invested significantly in establishing home offices. However, many have not yet initiated the upgrade process.
Natarajan anticipates further expansion in Redington's mobile phone division, specializing in distributing smartphones from brands like Apple, Google, and others, particularly as affluent Indian consumers increasingly invest in phones priced above 30,000 rupees ($361.30). In the SISA region, this segment witnessed a revenue surge of 61% during the initial nine months of fiscal 2024. Redington has been enhancing its emphasis on its cloud services sector to diversify beyond gadget distribution, which currently constitutes a significant portion of 

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