91mobiles Laptop Buyer Insights Survey 2023: a summary

Here is a quick summary of how people consider buying a laptop, based on our Laptop Buyer Insights Survey 2023.

• By team91 -
Published On: March 28, 2023

The PC market saw massive growth during the pandemic, but sales have since seen a decline. Players such as HP, Dell, ASUS, and Lenovo continue to expand their portfolios across various price segments, leaving new buyers with tons of options to choose from. On the other hand, newer entrants like Xiaomi, Realme, and Infinix have also started to come up with compelling products at competitive prices. Furthermore, the personal computing space continues to see improvements in terms of performance and efficiency thanks to new-generation chips from the likes of Intel and AMD.

In order to get a clear idea of this evolving PC market, we surveyed over 5,000+ people through our Laptop Buyer Insights Survey 2023 to understand which brands are preferred by buyers, how buyers tend to buy a new laptop, and more. Here are the key insights we were able to pull out after analysing the responses.

Laptop Buyer Insights Survey 2023

Findings from the latest 91mobiles survey pertaining to laptop ownership in India, buying patterns, brand loyalty etc

Section 1: Trends in laptop ownership

• Just like our Laptop Buyer Insights survey from last year, HP and Dell continue to dominate the Indian laptop market with a share of 33.2 percent and 23.1 percent respectively.
• Despite a slight dip of 0.2 percent in market share from last year's 14.9 percent, Lenovo has once again managed to take up the third spot when it comes to laptop ownership in India. This is closely followed by ASUS, Acer, and Apple.
• While Xiaomi saw an increase in ownership, Realme on the other hand failed to get new customers for its laptops.

• Brands like MSI and Infinix significantly increased their market share from last year by 0.8 percent and 0.6 percent respectively.
• Apple declined in ownership share by a good margin over the past year. While the reason is unclear it may possibly be due to the high cost of new MacBook models in India.

What do people want to buy next?

• When asked about the preferred brand of choice for their next laptop purchase, around 55 percent of our survey group responded with either HP or Dell.
• Interestingly, 13.9 percent of the respondents would like to go with ASUS when buying a new laptop. This is a considerable jump from last year's 10.3 percent. The reason behind the increased preference for ASUS could be because of the company's continuous efforts in bringing innovative laptops across various price segments.
• Furthermore, Lenovo and Apple have may see a decrease in demand for their laptops this year which was not the case in 2022.

Brand loyalty among laptop users

• Apple loyalists remain unwaveringly committed to their brand, with 77.6 percent of survey respondents indicating a desire to continue using Apple products. It seems existing MacBook users are satisfied with the top-notch performance and battery efficiency that the latest generation of MacBooks offer.

• After Apple, ASUS seems to be the brand with the most loyal users as 64 percent of the respondents are likely to purchase a new laptop from the company.

• While Lenovo has a relatively strong foothold in terms of ownership this year, only 36.9 percent of the people from our survey group are likely to get a Lenovo laptop.

Section 2: Purchase

How people decide on a new laptop

• As per the survey data, around 76 percent of the respondents have at least one laptop in their homes while 8 percent own more than two laptops.
• More than 50 percent of the survey respondents use their laptops for professional work which is a marginal increase of around 2 percent from last year. On the contrary, 33.8 percent of the users utilise their laptops for education and learning purposes which is a drop of close to 4 percent from the previous survey.
• Based on the survey report, it appears that 20 percent of people are likely to upgrade their laptops within two years, while a majority of respondents (60 percent) reported that they typically wait at least four years before replacing their laptops. These findings suggest that modern laptops are built to last longer than previous models.
• When asked about the main reason behind upgrading their laptops, most people in the survey group want a better laptop with the latest specifications. The second biggest reason people are likely to make a switch to a new laptop is that their current laptop no longer works as it used to. Besides that, some people may upgrade when and if they come across a good deal on a new laptop.
• When buying a new laptop, around one-fourth of the survey group resort to watching video reviews on YouTube while others check out websites like 91mobiles and MySmartPrice for research purposes.

Aspects that matter most while buying a new laptop

• More than 75 percent of the survey respondents consider performance as their topmost priority when purchasing a new laptop. Besides that, battery and storage space also plays a crucial role in their buying decision among other factors.
• Within performance, the processor is the most sought aspect of a laptop followed by RAM capacity, graphics card, and benchmark scores.
• Intel is the most well-known laptop processor among the respondents while AMD and Apple continue to gain popularity.
• Coming to processor preferences, around 58 percent of respondents seek Intel-branded laptops, while AMD comes in second in terms of preference. You can read more about what people consider when buying a new laptop in our separate report here.

How people prefer to purchase a new laptop

• When it comes to purchasing a new laptop, more than 54 percent of the survey takers are likely to pay the full amount upfront while 28 percent of them would rely on EMI options.
• Around 39 percent of the respondents currently own a laptop that is priced between Rs 30,000 to Rs 50,000. On the other hand, more than 5 percent of the respondents have spent over Rs 75,000 on their current laptops.
• Also, people are willing to purchase from online channels if the laptop is priced cheaper.

Demographic trends

• Per our survey report, Xiaomi and Realme are the most popular brands among laptop buyers below the age of 18. ASUS and Apple on the other hand are likely to find new buyers from people aged between 18 to 24.
• Brands such as HP and Dell with a significant ownership share are well known among buyers aged 44 and above.