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On the eve of the new school year – in July and the first week of August – the number of laptop purchases in online and offline retail turned out to be 7% higher than the level of the same period in 2023. This is stated in the statistics of the analytical center "Check of  Index" of the "OFD Platform", which collects data from a large number of electronic and offline sites.

In total, in July 2024, users in Russia purchased 212,000 laptops worth 13.2 billion rubles, which is comparable to last year's values of 214,500 pcs. for 13.3 billion rubles, said a representative of the distributor Marvel Distribution. The most popular brands in unit sales in the Russian market last month were Taiwanese Asus (16.2%), Chinese Huawei (14.7%), Taiwanese MSI (8.4%), American Apple (6.7%) and Chinese brand Lenovo (6.4%), analysts of Marvel Distribution calculated. In July 2023 the list of leaders looked somewhat different: MSI (20.5%), Huawei (13%), Asus (11.2%), Lenovo (8.2%) and Acer (6.8%).

At the same time, according to the calculations of the "Check of Index", the average check for laptops in July and early August turned out to be only 8% higher than in the same period a year earlier – almost 54,000 rubles. According to the statistics of Marvel Distribution, the average price of laptops has hardly changed over the year - about 62,000 rubles. Data from the distributor diHouse suggests that gaming laptops have risen in price the most, the price of which has increased by almost 20% and exceeded 105,000 rubles. Experts fear a rise in the price of equipment due to rising prices for components 

Sales of Laptops in July 2023 and July 2024 in billion rubles 

2023	2024	2023	2024
13,3	13,2	214,5	212

Source: Marvel Distribution

According to Avito, the average cost of new and used laptops on the site in July – early August 2024 reached 34,000 rubles, a company representative said. The 1st place in terms of sales share at Avito is still occupied by Apple equipment with a share of 20% of total sales. The 2nd and 3rd places were taken by Asus and Lenovo – sales of these laptops accounted for 15 and 14% of the total, respectively. Prices for new Lenovo and Asus laptops in July – early August 2024 on the Avito platform increased by 5%, prices for Apple equipment are comparable to last year's figures.

At the marketplace Ozon, the demand for laptops increased by 10% year-on-year, says a representative of the marketplace. Sales at Wildberries increased by 47% in quantitative terms, and by 12% in monetary terms.

On the eve of the new academic year, as in the previous year, the brands Asus, Lenovo, Acer, Huawei are in the greatest demand at Ozon, the representative of the site noted. At Wildberries, according to a representative of the marketplace, the most popular laptops were Chinese Azerty and Apple. The number of laptop orders in July – August 2024 on Yandex Market increased almost 2.5 times compared to the same period in 2023.,  a representative of the site said. The most popular brands are laptops from Apple, Asus, Lenovo, Chinese Honor and Huawei.

Huawei and Asus turned out to be the leaders in retail at M.Video-Eldorado in July – early August 2024, MSI, Apple and Honor are also popular, a company representative said. Huawei and Honor manufacturers have a wide range of models in the segment from 40,000 rubles, and MSI is strong in gaming laptops, he added. The sales volume of gaming models increased by about 10-15% compared to the same period last year, analysts at diHouse confirmed.

The most purchased brands on the Megamarket turned out to be Honor, Asus, Apple, Huawei and MSI. "Honor takes 1st place in the summer, as its models are actively bought before the start of the school year. The line includes budget and lightweight laptops, which are convenient to carry in a backpack and use for recording lectures. MSI and Asus are popular among gamers, and Apple is chosen by office staff or designers," says Mikhail Livitsky, category manager for laptops at the Megamarket.

The most popular brands of laptops in Russia. Share in % of total sales volume in pieces     Source: Marvel Distribution

Brand	July 2023	July 2024
MSI	20,5	8,4
Huawei	13	17,4
ASUS	11,2	16,2
Lenovo	8,2	6,4
Acer	6,8	NA
Apple	NA	6,7
Others	40,3	44,9

For schoolchildren, as a rule, they take laptops in the price range of 25,000-30,000 rubles, which contain standard office programs and are convenient for installing software without foreign licenses, says a representative of the Check of Index. He attributed domestic brands such as Irbis, Fplus, Aquarius and ICL to such brands. The interlocutor noted that compared with foreign laptops, domestic laptops look more competitive due to affordability, warranty, service support, ease of installation and change of the operating system (OS) and open source software.

According to representatives of M.Video-Eldorado and Marvel Distribution, consumer demand is now shifting towards devices without pre-installed OS. The saving factor is crucial for many consumers, explains the representative of Marvel Distribution. "For example, pre-installed Windows 10 Pro immediately increases the price of a laptop by more than 10,000 rubles. People prefer to invest this money in RAM, buy a more powerful video card or a better hard drive, i.e. due to the lack of an OS, get a more powerful configuration," he says. Purchases of devices without pre-installed OS are more typical for gamers, since they are technically a more literate audience and can easily "roll up" the system on their own, the interlocutor stressed. Antivirus software and office applications from Kaspersky, OfficeSuite, and P7-office are added to laptops with OS, says a representative of M.video-Eldorado.

In autumn of 2024, it is worth waiting for an increase in prices for laptops due to an increase in the cost of some components, warns Irina Babina, head of the diHouse laptops department. "In particular, the price of SSD (data carrier) and memory has increased by $ 15-20, which will affect the retail price of the product when new batches of goods arrive on our market," the expert predicts.

Discounts on sales for the Day of Knowledge will affect individual budget models of smartphones rather than laptops, the editor-in-chief agrees Ferra.ru (part of the Rambler & Co media holding) Evgeny Kharitonov. SSD prices have really increased significantly, and the situation with the memory market is similar, he confirms. However, the gradual disappearance from sale of laptop models based on Intel 11th generation and AMD Ryzen 5000 and 6000 series chips will contribute to a much higher price increase, since prices for Intel generation 12/13/14/Core Ultra and Ryzen 7000/8000/9000 chips are 15-20% higher, the expert concluded.

Source: https://www.vedomosti.ru/technology/articles/2024/08/12/1055136-prodazhi-noutbukov-pered-novim-uchebnim-godom-aktivizirovalis