Growth in India's PC market slowed down in the second quarter on account of rising oil prices and inflation, political uncertainty in the country, and news of an impending economic slowdown in the US, according to research firm IDC India.

Although the country's economic fundamentals are still strong, buyers are cautious, said Kapil Dev Singh, country manager at IDC India. "It is not yet clear whether the slowdown is a temporary issue, or sign of a deeper, long-term trend in the PC market," Singh said.

The PC market in the country grew in the quarter to 2.1 million units, up by about 8 percent from the same quarter last year, IDC said on Thursday. Shipments of desktop PCs dropped by 2.4 percent, while notebook PC shipments posted a growth of 51.2 percent, IDC India said.

The decline in sales of desktop PCs is partly linked to an overall transition by users from desktops to notebook computers, Singh said.

The first signs of a slowdown came in the first quarter when PC sales grew by about 10 percent to 2.1 million units. That growth was far lower than last year when PC sales had grown by 20 percent to 6.5 million units.

The mobile phone market in contrast continues to be buoyant, according to IDC. "PCs and mobile phones are seen by users as different products purchased for different purposes," Singh said. In the first quarter of this year, mobile phone shipments were up 24.4 percent to about 22 million.

In the second quarter, Hewlett-Packard was the largest vendor of PCs with a market share of 18.7 percent. An Indian vendor, HCL Infosystems was second with a share of 10.8 percent, while Lenovo was third with a share of 8.9 percent, according to IDC.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.