South African PC demand looks set to keep pace with the good worldwide demand, with rand strength, product bundling and a growing small business sector all contributing, says research firm BMI-TechKnowledge.
BMI-T, the local affiliate of US research group International Data Corporation (IDC), says preliminary data predicts that SA`s third quarter PC sales will grow by 32.2% compared to the same period last year.
[TABLE]IDC`s third quarter PC sales tracker, released on Monday, says worldwide PC demand grew 12% with total shipments of 44.2 million units and is second only to the fourth quarter of 2003 in total volume.
"PC market performance in the third quarter reflects persistent commercial activity and continuing demand in areas such as mobile computing, Europe and the rest of the world," says Loren Loverde, director of IDC`s Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker.
"Nevertheless, we would like to see more consumer activity going into the fourth quarter and growth in Asia could have been stronger."
BMI-T analyst Laurika Moller says the local market, while showing strong growth rates on an annual basis, was taking a slower quarter-on-quarter rise at 5.9%.
"The South African market has been driven by some very big vendor-specific deals, which we are not allowed to disclose," she says.
Last year was good for the South African PC market with a total of 872 000 units shipped, made up of 676 000 desktops, 172 566 notebooks and 23 300 X36 servers. Revenue generated topped R7.561 billion.
Moller says the PC market has been driven by increased vendor competition in the small and medium business market segment - a market considered to be far from saturated. The rand`s good performance also contributed, with an average rand/dollar exchange rate this year of R6.36/$ compared to 2003`s average of R7.57/$.
"Also driving local PC sales growth are the ever-increasing importance of the retailers selling to the consumer and SMB markets, and the bundling of products that make the deals more attractive. The appearance of new technologies such as the growing importance of wireless products is another contributor, and the ongoing corporate refresh cycle," she says.
IDC vendor highlights for the third quarter:
* Dell continued to lead the market and expand its share with more than 20% growth year-on-year. More than 30% growth in portables and in international markets was reported, with strong participation from the commercial segment.
* HP remained the market leader in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and saw strong growth in Asia. Nevertheless, year-on-year growth in the US dropped to low single-digits due to a difficult comparison with the company`s aggressive push in the second half of 2003 and rising competition in the consumer segment.
* IBM had a strong quarter, gaining share in the US and abroad. The company`s best performances were in Asia/Pacific and the US. Portables growth also remained strong, growing to over 46% of client shipments.
* Fujitsu Seimens performed roughly in line with the market in its core regions of Europe and Japan, although growth slowed from a peak in the second quarter.
* Toshiba had a strong quarter across the major regions and moved back into the top five for both the US and worldwide.
* Gateway`s sequential growth was a few points ahead of the market, reflecting some improvement in the second quarter following the merger with eMachines. Nevertheless, shipments for the combined companies were down more than 12% year-on-year, reflecting merger challenges in a competitive market and limited immediate impact from Gateway`s recent channel agreements.
* Acer remained aggressive in EMEA, with growth of more than 50%. The company also performed well in other international markets, although its relatively small base in the US continued to erode.
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