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Battery Recalls Could Change Market Share: IDC |
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Written by Adam Gosling
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Thursday, 30 November 2006 |
While corporate notebook buyers aren't planning to reduce
their purchases of laptop computers, 15 per cent of them are thinking seriously
about changing brands.
Most leading brands of notebook computer vendors have
announced battery recalls this year after the Lithium Ion units being
manufactured by Sony exhibited a potential to overheat and burst into flames.
Dell, Apple, Lenovo, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Panasonic, Gateway,
and Sony all pushed the great battery recall of 2006 to double digit millions
in what turned out to be not only a costly mistake in terms of profits, but
reputation as well.
Dell, with its leading marketshare world wide was by far the
largest third party user of the suspect Sony batteries and it was Dell that bore
the brunt of most of the negative PR - despite it being no more to blame than the
others.
In fact compared to Lenovo and I think Toshiba, which both
insisted that their PCs were immune to the carnage, Dell was first to buckle
and announce the recall, albeit in the face of an avalanche of media attention
on Dell laptop incidents.
While only a small percentage of notebook batteries actually
ever exhibited a problem, the millions of batteries had to be recalled for the
sake of consumer safety as those that did erupt, did so with significant
intensity.
So with all the bad press notebooks have gotten this year,
is it going to put the buyers off? No, says industry number cruncher IDC which
has just completed a survey of some 500 corporate IT decision makers.
The survey also asked more than 200 consumer whether the
battery recalls had put them off buying laptops?
IDC says there was a resounding no to that question. 85 per cent
of respondents say the battery recalls will not impact future notebook PC
purchasing decisions.
However, the 15 per cent that said it will change their
buying habits don't plan to move away from laptops, they just plan to change
their brand preference.
IDC says this could be enough to change notebook computer
market shares, especially in the corporate segment where buyers purchase large
volumes. But IDC says this shouldn't cause any dramatic effects, which is
probably a comfort to Dell.
"The silver lining is that most of the customers we
surveyed aren't foregoing notebook purchases," says Richard Shim, senior
research analyst with IDC's Personal Computing program.
"Instead, a small percentage indicate that they will
alter their brand preference, meaning that vendors have an opportunity to win
over new customers, forming new market dynamics," he said.
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