Legit Reviews

30 May 2011

The Australian PC market grew 6% year-on-year in Q1 2011 amidst recovering business conditions, but weak consumer sentiment

Sydney, Australia. The Australian PC market grew 6% YoY and 3% sequentially in Q1 2011 to reach just under 1.5 million units, according to IDC's quarterly PC tracker.

Despite increased uptake of all-in-one desktops by consumers, the overall desktop market maintained its gradual downward trend as the shift to mobile computing continues. Demand for mini-notebooks dropped significantly, by 30% over the same period last year given competition from media tablets, declining notebook prices and increased interest in 11 inch screen size notebooks in the education space.

While Intel’s Sandy Bridge glitch resulted in delays of new product refreshes, vendors and channel partners were able to recover promptly and opted for 1st generation Core-i systems or AMD systems as alternatives. "The overall impact of the recall was marginal. Although, AMD benefited from the glitch and experienced a significant uplift following the recall," said IDC analyst Amy Cheah.

"There was a slight pickup in SMB spending driven mainly by businesses and channel partners looking to replace damaged or lost PCs as recovery efforts from the Queensland flood crisis took place," said Cheah. "A stronger push into the channels from vendors such as Toshiba and Acer in anticipation of the end of financial year tax rush further contributed to the growth."

Despite a sluggish Q4 2010 and weak consumer sentiment, Apple and Toshiba significantly outperformed the market with double digit sequential growth respectively. Toshiba recovered from a disappointing performance last year by driving an aggressive 40% price discount on all Toshiba notebook brands exclusively in Harvey Norman stores nationwide. Apple on the other hand consistently gained market share since Q3 2010, fueled by strong demand for its Macbook Air and Macbook Pro range in addition to its growing retail presence through its Apple stores.

"The halo effect of the success of the iPod which further progressed to the iPhone and iPad is now proving to be a strong driver behind Apple's growing market share," said Cheah. "It has been instrumental in building a vast installed base of Apple users accustomed to the Apple experience, which ultimately worked in favour of Apple's Mac range. Interestingly, its influential force in end users' purchasing decisions may have long been underestimated by other vendors."

Table 1: Australian PC Shipments by Vendor, 1Q11

Rank

1 HP 21%
2 Acer 15%
3 Dell 13%
4 Apple 13%
5 Toshiba 11%
Others 27%
Grand Total 100%


Source: IDC Australia, 1Q11 PC Tracker, May 2011