Taiwan clocks US$1B in PC sales for 2011

The Taiwanese PC market continues to grow despite a global industry slowdown due to supply constraints, particularly on the hard disk drive front, with consumers snapping up more than US$1 billion worth of laptops and desktops in 2011.

According to findings released by GfK Taiwan Wednesday, consumers boosted PC volumes sales in the country by 5 percent year on year, buying up a total of 1.64 million devices last year. This represented nearly 73,000 more units sold than in 2010, with positive market showings carrying on into the first two months of 2012, it added.

Laptops constituted 62 percent of all PC sales in 2011, or a 6 percent growth, and remained the key driver of Taiwan's PC market, the research note stated. Desktops also grew, albeit at a slower pace, at 2 percent.

"Although overall performance of the market has been somewhat affected by the mounting popularity of tablets, there have been interesting developments, such as the introduction and rise of lightweight laptops as well as entry-level, large-screen laptops which have managed to continue stirring up consumer interests and stimulating growth," said Lydia Huang, general manager of GfK Taiwan.

Taiwan's positive PC market sentiments is good news for the overall industry still affected by supply chain shortages. Gartner released its first quarter findings last Thursday, and stated that while hard disk drive shortages continue to hurt the industry, it still grew 1.9 percent from the same quarter last year.