PC shipments in Apac hit 48.3 mn units
Fuelled by growth in markets such as India, China and Korea, the total PC shipments in the Asia Pacific region touched 48.3 million units during 2006, representing a 17% growth over 2005.
By Moumita Bakshi, TNN |
NEW DELHI: Fuelled by growth in markets such as India, China and Korea, the total PC shipments in the Asia Pacific region touched 48.3 million units during 2006, representing a 17% growth over 2005.
"National IT projects for schools and stronger demand from Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) supported China's growth last year. Meanwhile in India, aggressive marketing coupled with a good economic sentiment boosted the domestic PC market in 2006," IDC said.
For the fourth quarter of 2006 (October-December), IDC's preliminary estimates showed that the regional PC market (excluding Japan) grossed 13.1 million units, representing a 2% sequential growth and a 14% year-on-year growth.
"Despite the political upheaval in some parts of Asia in 2006, the PC market proved highly resilient with 17% annual growth. Spurred by increasingly affordable models and healthy competition among the vendors, interest in notebooks also reached record levels," said IDC Director of Asia/Pacific - Personal Systems Research, Bryan Ma, said.
IDC projected that during 2007, the PC market is likely to grow by at least 15%, albeit a tad lower than 2006 due to the increasing sizes of the markets. The growth rate is still healthy with the weight of key markets such as China and India behind it, IDC pointed out.
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The rankings of the top five PC manufacturers remained unchanged in 4Q 2006. In the first place is Lenovo which grew its market share marginally as it continued to expand in China and India. HP, which took the second slot, managed to post the strongest year-on-year growth rate among the top five vendors, fueled by a successful run in notebooks during the quarter. Dell came off its 3Q 2006 peak but managed to hold onto its third position. Founder came fourth in 4Q06 followed by Acer. IDC said that India had one of the strongest year-on-year growth rates in the region in 4Q 2006, on the back of continued economic momentum that allowed the market to meet its forecasts this quarter. China's PC market grew in 4Q06 as demand from the government, SMBs, and large business sectors progressed. Korea's PC market came in softer than expected as poor consumer sentiment impacted spending. Taiwan's PC market declined quarter-on-quarter due to the late start of the Central Trust of China (CToC) tender.
Commenting on the performance for full year, IDC said that notebook shipments grew rapidly at 43% year-on-year. "Overall desktop growth remained healthy at 9% year-on-year, even as shipments to some countries declined. Notebooks also took up a larger piece of the pie in 2006, forming 27% of all PC shipments, up from 22% the year before," IDC said.
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