IDC RAISES NOTEBOOK OUTLOOK

Written by Adam Gosling

Friday, 07 October 2005

IDC has raised its forecasts for PC shipments in the Asia/Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) region, following the market's strong performance during the 2Q05 period. IDC now expects 40.0 million PCs to be shipped in the APEJ region in 2005, representing an annual growth of 14.8%. This will be followed by 44.9 million PCs in 2006, or growth of 12.2%. Although desktops will continue to dominate over 75% of the unit shipments over the next two years, notebooks are the hot spot of the PC industry, with a staggering 35.7% annual unit growth expected in 2005, compared to 10.2% for desktops. "Notebooks were on fire this past quarter with the spread of low prices and increased awareness in mature and developing countries alike," said Bryan Ma, Associate Director of Personal Systems Research at IDC Asia/Pacific. “And in the total PC market (including desktops), China and India will continue to be huge engines for growth through the forecast period, but one should not dismiss the growth potential in emerging markets such as Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh either." China will continue to play a key role in the region, representing 45.7% of the total PC units expected to ship in 2005. IDC expects that the Chinese government will be able to successfully contain any potential economic overheating there. India, the second largest market in the region, will have the strongest growth rates across all the countries in the region in both 2005 and 2006 – at 30.1% and 25.6% respectively – riding on the strength of the Indian economy and as buyers there reap the benefits of recent duty drops. “The PC markets in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, though small at the moment, represent burgeoning opportunities in the region, particularly in the business and public sectors,” said Andrew Wong, Research Manager at IDC. “All of these markets are highly fragmented with a few strong local vendors and a large assembler/whitebox market. This represents an opportune time for multinational vendors to respond competitively in order to try to achieve increased penetration in these markets.” Challenges still exist though. IDC believes that markets such as Australia, Hong Kong, and Korea will be conservative in their growth, largely due to their maturity. High oil prices will continue to be a variable, especially for Southeast Asian countries where government subsidies are being debated, but IDC does not expect Hurricane Katrina’s effects in the US to ripple over to the global or Asia/Pacific economies. The currency revaluations in China and Malaysia could theoretically slow the region’s economy down, but IDC expects little or no impact to the PC markets as the floats are contained within a relatively limited band. Related news items Nokia Buys Map Company For US$8 Billion -02/10/2007 3 Trials Alternative Mobile TV Technology -15/08/2007 Solid State Drives Will Find A Home: IDC -12/08/2007 Now Every Kiwi Has A Mobile, What Next? -08/08/2007 Linux On Lenovo Laptops -06/08/2007 Newer news items First 19 Inch Notebook in Australia -02/04/2006 Widescreen Notebooks Take Over -07/03/2006 SYSTEM BUILDERS ANNOUNCE NEW CENTRINO -22/01/2006 INTEL LAUNCHES NEW CENTRINO -22/01/2006 TECRA S3 FOR THE SECURITY CONSCIOUS -02/11/2005 Older news items NEWS ASUS WIDESCREEN -06/10/2005 $100 LAPTOP! WHERE'S MINE? -29/09/2005 LIGHT AND MOBILE HP PRESARIO -26/09/2005 INTEL CONCEPT PC CAN TOUGH IT OUT -23/08/2005 IN-STAT SEES MODEST TABLET GROWTH -26/07/2005 Tag This Now: