Ctrl+AI+Delete: Is the old PC dead?

Time of India

27-05-2025

Walk into any electronics retail store in a shopping mall and you will see experience zones showcasing the latest and greatest in AI PCs, running demo videos and AI apps. There will be a crowd huddled around them trying out new applications—summarising documents, writing code, generating images and making music. In-store promoters will be evangelising the benefits of a
neural processing unit
fitted in these laptops. Sales of
AI PCs
are gaining traction in India, albeit slowly. The main deterrents to mass adoption—confused consumers who are not very clear about the benefits and a steep price-tag, industry executives and market trackers told ET.
Out of a total 9.9 million PCs shipped in India in 2024, only 1.2 million were AI notebooks, making up roughly 12% of total PC sales, according to IDC.
Ipsita Dasgupta, managing director,
HP India
, told ET that AI PCs are just being introduced in the Indian market, so it's still early to quantify their share in overall shipments. However, momentum is building quickly, with strong interest across consumer and commercial segments.'Globally, 15-20% of all PCs sold this year are expected to be AI PCs and this is projected to rise to over 50% within the next two to three years,' she said.
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Price is not expected to be a prohibitive factor for adoption of AI PCs in India. 'When comparing an AI PC to a non-AI PC with similar specifications, the price difference is negligible. In most cases, the difference is about Rs 15,000,' Dasgupta said. Some, however, feel that the response has been below expectations. 'In the last one year, the industry has realised that the adoption of AI hardware has not grown at the pace they assumed. The slow adoption is not only in India, but globally too,' said Sudhir Goel, chief business officer,
Acer India
.
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As the hype around generative AI reaches fever pitch, there is strong interest among customers in India, however.
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'We're seeing stronger interest across customer cohorts—students, creators, gamers, mid-market and enterprise—where AI use cases such as AI tutors, personal assistants, video and audio editing, intelligent threat detection, real-time translation and Copilot+ workflows have immediate impact,' said Ashish Sikka, director and category head,
Lenovo India
.
However, steep pricing of the products has kept overall penetration of AI PCs low, industry executives said. 'People don't know why they want to pay more to buy an AI PC,' said Bharath Shenoy, principal analyst, IDC India.
Shenoy said AI PCs currently command a higher price compared to non-AI PCs which is a barrier, especially for bulk enterprise purchases and price-sensitive consumers. 'The entry-level price for AI PCs is currently significantly above the typical price range where the majority of Indian consumers are comfortable spending for a laptop. People were spending around Rs 30,000–35,000 for a laptop. Now it has gone up to Rs 45,000–50,000. But AI PCs start around Rs 75,000–80,000,' Shenoy said, adding that when consumers do spend that amount, they often opt for established premium alternatives.
Some in the PC industry have accepted that pricing is a barrier to adoption, and has been actively working towards lowering it, admitting that the additional hardware inside AI PCs will always keep them at a premium over non-AI PCs. 'This is the beginning of the AI PC era in India. Right now, most of the AI PC devices launched are in the premium segment, and over a period of time, we will see more and more AI PCs being launched in the mainstream segment. However, AI PCs will continue to be at a premium to normal PCs, as they have significant hardware enhancements, which provide customers with an undeniable value proposition for productivity, creativity and security,' Lenovo's Sikka said.
Industry executives said the second half of the year will see prices moderating. The older generation PCs will put on discounts to clear inventories, replaced by a new breed of
affordable AI PCs
, that will bring them closer to the average selling price of a PC in India.
Goel says while prices have already started going down, a major drop is expected from June onwards. Acer specifically plans to bring AI hardware very close to what is the current mainstream pricing by May end when the back-to-school season starts, a period which typically sees PC sales go up in India.
Qualcomm
, a new entrant in the PC space known primarily for its chipsets for high-end smartphones, said its new
Snapdragon X platform
has already enabled devices at price points starting around $600 (approximately Rs 51,000), and the company now expects a big pull from consumers. Beyond just pricing, there is also a general lack of awareness of the benefits of using an AI PC, industry executives said. As awareness picks up and pricing comes down, AI PCs are expected to dominate PC sales in the years to come