APAC PC shipments increased by 9% in 2002: Gartner Dataquest

The Asia/Pacific PC market's growth rate outpaced the worldwide industry in 2003. PC shipments in Asia/Pacific reached 21.7 million units in 2002, an 8.6 percent increase from 2001, according to Dataquest Inc, a unit of Gartner, Inc. The worldwide PC market grew three percent in 2002.

"While the slowdown and past events compromised its hardware growth rates, India managed to remain fairly resilient in the face of such adversity in 2002. PC shipments have grown around 11.8 percent over 2001," said Vinod Nair, Research Analyst (Hardware Platforms), Gartner India. "Organizations that have been reluctant in utilizing their hardware budgets have started easing their restraints. Though the pre-slowdown levels remain far from achievement, the market looks positive and there are indications that organizations are buying PCs," said

Nair. 

"The large spenders continue to be Finance and Banking and Telecom verticals. Vendors are increasingly developing strategies to tap Government orders while education is gaining significance in terms of hardware spending," he added.

"The white box segment still remains tough competition for branded vendors," he added.

"The Asia/Pacific market's growth rate was a significant contributor to the worldwide industry returning to positive growth in 2002," said Lillian Tay, Senior Analyst, (Computing Platforms), Gartner Dataquest, Asia/Pacific group. 

"Much of the growth came from the home and the small and medium enterprise market, as well as demand for mobile PCs," Tay added.

"Vendors actively pursued these markets with aggressive installment schemes and bundling programs and introduced CRT monitor and PC trade in programs to stimulate replacement activities," he added.

Legend maintained its leadership position as the # 1 PC vendor in Asia/Pacific, followed by Hewlett-Packard and IBM. Dell was the only top-tier vendor to experience double-digit growth in 2002, as its shipments grew by 23 percent.

China continued to be the dominant country in the region, as it accounted for 43 percent of all PC shipments in the Asia/Pacific region. Much of the growth in the region came from countries such as Thailand and India, which experienced increases of 40 percent and 12 percent, respectively. 

More mature markets such as Hong Kong and Singapore suffered negative growth rates in 2002 because of sluggish economies and unemployment rates, which hampered IT spending.

Mobile PC growth rate was robust at 25 percent vs the desk-based PC at six percent over last year. Mobile PC captured 16 percent market share of total PC market this year compared with last year at 14 percent.

Cyber New Service