The India client Personal Computer market crossed yet another milestone to ship nearly 6.5 million PCs in a calendar year, thereby recording 20 per cent year-on-year growth in unit shipments compared to 5.4 million units in 2006, ISC India reported on Wednesday.

In its quarterly PC racker for the fourth quarter issued this month, IDC said that the notebook PC shipments accounted for nearly a quarter of the total shipments.

''This healthy trend points to the maturing of the Indian IT market and shift into a new phase of growth -- Growth Phase 2.0'' IDC India Country manager Kapil Dev Singh said in a release in Mumbai.

''The notebook PC shipments touching 1.8 million units (as against 0.98 million in 2006) reinforces the increasing acceptance of laptops as the preferred choice for a large number first time PC buyers,'' Singh added.

In the overall client PC (notebooks and desktops combined) market, HP retained the top spot with a market share of 21 per cent followed by HCL [Get Quote] at 13 per cent and Lenovo at 10 per cent in terms of unit shipments.

In the total desktop PC market, HP retained the top spot with HCL a close second. Lenovo was placed in the third spot. In terms of commercial desktop PC shipments HCL led the market followed by HP and Lenovo. In terms of consumer desktop PC shipments, HP led the market in 2007 followed by HCL and LG Electronics.

Notebook PC shipments accounted for 27 per cent of the total India client PC share in 2007 as consumer client PC growth shot ahead of commercial PC shipments growth in calendar year 2007.

According to IDC India PC Research Manager Piyush Pushkal, ''With consumer desktop shipments reporting flat growth, the higher overall growth of the consumer client PC segment signals maturing of the market. The consumer PC category is transitioning from a desktop-centric to a notebook-centric phase of growth.''