Healthy PC market in Asia continues

In spite of pressures from the global economy, the PC market in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan) is healthy and growing, says IDC.

In its latest statement, the analyst firm said the region's PC market grew 8 percent from the last quarter and 15 percent year-on-year (YOY) to hit nearly 19 million units in the second quarter of 2008.

IDC added this showing, however, fell 4 percent short of its previous forecasts, because of softer performances from countries such as India, Korea and Taiwan--although nearly all the countries posted year-on-year growth.

Bryan Ma, director, Asia-Pacific personal systems research at IDC said: "The Asia-Pacific region's PC market finally started to feel some of the pressure from the global economic situation this quarter, especially with inflation and fuel subsidy issues emerging in many countries in Asia."

But a dip in performance is likely to be just a "temporary setback"; the market is expected to bounce back by the end of the year due to economic growth in many of the large countries in the region, noted Ma.

Lenovo, came up top in IDC's rankings, with 18.2 percent market share as of the last quarter. The Chinese PC maker was followed by HP and Dell, with 14 percent and 8.9 percent market share, respectively.

IDC said that besides the Sichuan earthquake which stalled businesses in China, Beijing's traffic leading up to the Olympics could impinge PC supplies into the city in the next quarter.

The Singapore and Hong Kong markets did well, said IDC. Singapore registered 24 percent YOY growth due to public spending initiatives such as the government's planned SOE project and PC purchasing programs from tertiary institutions.

In Hong Kong, hype around the ultra low cost PC segment stole the show. "While the long-term sustainability of such a market has yet to be proven, for now it is helping to fuel what is already a very hot notebook market," said IDC.