IDC Q2 2003 figures for the Australian PC market, released this week, show strong unit shipments but a fall in revenues.
A total of 689,587 PCs were shipped in the quarter. This is an increase of 19.2% over the shipments in Q2 2002. IDC's figures for revenue for the PC market shows AUD$1.55 billion in Q2 2003 compared with AU$1.59 billion in Q2 2002, a drop of 2.5%.
"IDC has seen the cost of PC components come down steadily," claims Imraan Ali, analyst, computing hardware at IDC. "This has meant vendors are able to offer much lower priced PC systems to both commercial and consumer customers who are demanding as much bang for their buck as possible. Also many vendors have adopted a volume strategy. That is, lower margins per unit but looking to reap the rewards through increased volumes in the marketplace. This is especially true in the desktop space."
| Pricing Trends in the Australian PC market | ||
| PC Market Segment | Year-on-Year (2Q 02 vs 2Q 03) | Quarter-on-Quarter (1Q 02 vs 2Q'03) |
| Desktop | -10.4% | -3.5% |
| Notebook | -7.5% | -2.1% |
| Total Market | -8.1% | -1.9% |
| Source: IDC | ||
Ali attributed shipment increases in the quarter to strong growth in the commercial desktop market due to business confidence, end of financial year spending, renewal of business PCs purchased due to the Y2K problem, and vendors being more price flexible.
Hewlett-Packard and Dell continue to control first and second place in PC shipments. Combined they supplied 30.9% of PCs in the quarter. This was line-ball with Q1 2003 but down 2.1% on Q2 2002. IBM turned in a strong result to take third place with 8.5% of PC shipped. Hewlett-Packard also took first place in the notebook market this quarter from traditional market leader Toshiba.
| Market Share 2Q 2003 (Units) | |
| Vendor | Share |
| HP | 19.5% |
| Dell | 11.4% |
| IBM | 8.5% |
| Acer | 6.3% |
| Optima | 5.6% |
| Others | 48.7% |
| Total | 100.0% |
| Source: IDC | |
| Market Share 1Q 2003 (Units) | |
| Vendor | Share |
| HP | 20.2% |
| Dell | 10.6% |
| Toshiba | 6.3% |
| IBM | 6.1% |
| Acer | 6.0% |
| Others | 50.8% |
| Total | 100.0% |
| Source: IDC | |
| Market Share 2Q 2002 (Units) | |
| Vendor | Share |
| HP | 22.5% |
| Dell | 10.5% |
| Acer | 8.1% |
| IBM | 8.0% |
| Toshiba | 5.7% |
| Others | 45.2% |
| Total | 100.0% |
| Source: IDC | |
| Market Share Full Year 2002 (Units) | |
| Vendor | Share |
| HP | 19.9% |
| Dell | 11.5% |
| IBM | 7.6% |
| Acer | 7.4% |
| Toshiba | 5.6% |
| Others | 48.0% |
| Total | 100.0% |
| Source: IDC | |
According to Ali strong competition in the PC market will continue. "Vendors are going to have to work that much harder to make a buck in this business."