Analyst: PC market is still alive despite tablet threat

Aggressive pricing from brands such as Acer, helped push the Australian PC market up in the third quarter 2010.

The Australian PC market has grown 16 percent in the third quarter 2010, reaching 1.4 million units shipped, according to analyst firm IDC.

However, sequentially the market dipped 5 per cent.

IDC market analyst, Amy Cheah, said it anticipated a decline, but it was less than originally expected. This was put down to aggressive pricing by brands such as Acer within major department stores like Harvey Norman.

“Q3 grew much more than we expected. It’s generally a slower quarter compared to Q2 due to end of financial year,” Cheah said. “Acer did some pretty aggressive promotions and as a result, it did help push the market up a little bit.”

The analyst firm revealed desktops remained buoyant during the period and there was an increasing demand for all-in-one devices along with refresh cycles containing Intel’s Core ix processors and Windows 7 among the enterprise sector.

IDC also expects desktop demand will be sustained due to the confirmation of the whole of Federal Government PC panel in October.

The top vendors (based on units shipped) in the PC space were HP holding 21 percent market share, closely followed by Acer at 17 per cent and Dell at 14 per cent. Toshiba was in fourth position at 11 per cent market share and Apple completed the top five at 10 per cent.

"Apple surprised everyone by taking back its top 5 spot, lost to Lenovo in the last quarter, making Q3 one of its best quarters in Australia," Cheah said. "Lenovo's strong reliance on the NSW Digital Education Revolution Program deal had helped it gain share in the past few quarters, but the slowdown in the roll out to schools resulted in a drop in its market position."

IDC anticipates the success of Apple stores and effects from the iPad hype, will enable Apple to sustain its growth in the coming quarters.

Going into the Christmas season, the PC market is expected to continue its momentum with 17 per cent year-on-year growth in the fourth quarter.

This is also coupled with the strengthening Australian dollar, which may produce attractive promotions for consumers.

Cheah said in the short term, cannibalisation of other mobile devices such as tablets, would not be likely until the tablets’ value proposition is clearly understood in the market place.

“At this point in time, they’re still a content consumption device and can't do what a PC can,” she said. IDC believes the hype and novelty factor of new mobile devices running on a full operating system such as Windows 7, will attract attention back to the notebook market, giving it a facelift in the New Year.

    Australian PC Shipments by Vendor Q3 2010

  • 1 HP 21 per cent
  • 2 Acer 17 per cent
  • 3 Dell 14 per cent
  • 4 Toshiba 11 per cent
  • 5 Apple 10 per cent
  • Others 26 per cent

More about: Acer, Apple, Dell, Dell Computer, Federal Government, Harvey Norman, Hewlett-Packard, HP, IDC, Intel, Lenovo, Norman, Norman, Toshiba
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Comments

Kevin

1

The number of times I have read a headline suggesting the Desktop is dead heads into double figures.
No matter how good laptops, Tablets and other portable computers become they can never match the power or flexibility of a desktop.
What may change is that the second or third computer in a home is more likely not to be a desktop.

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