Indirect PC sales to soar

By Staff Writer for Gartner

Johannesburg, 03 Jun 2009

Global research firm Gartner predicts indirect PC sales will account for 80% of worldwide PC shipments by 2012.

The indirect channel accounted for 66.6% of worldwide PC shipments in 2004, and it grew to account for 74.3% of shipments in 2008 due to emerging market expansion, says Gartner.

“The direct sales channel is still showing customer preference in certain segments, such as enterprise, government and education and some professional segments in mature markets,” says Tiffani Bova, research VP at Gartner.

“However, strong consumer and small office/home office market growth will lead to consistent growth for the retail channel, and we can expect to see growth from a variety of non-traditional PC retailers such as Wal-Mart and Price Club in the US and Carrefour and Courts in Asia/Pacific.”

Bova says telecoms retailers will also begin to play a much more active role as a viable mobile PC channel, especially with mini-notebooks that are being bundled with remote access 3G contracts in Western Europe, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and the US.

“The distribution of PCs has always been a complex logistics exercise, and during the last two years, the channel has been particularly volatile, with a declining average selling price, increased channels to market, consolidation and the introduction of new brands and technologies to the market. Building a one-size-fits-all product, or channel strategy will not deliver the flexibility or responsiveness customers are looking for in today's market.”

Boya says building multi-channel sales avenues opens customer contacts with reduced costs, versus selling and supporting customers directly.

Direct market resellers will be the fastest-growing indirect sales channel, although the market size will be relatively small at less than 5% of the total market by 2012, says Gartner.

Future growth in PC sales during the next four years will be fuelled by steady home market growth in both mature and emerging markets. However, Gartner says SMEs prefer a combination of both the direct and indirect sales channel when purchasing PCs.