Asia PC shipment up 30% last year
Specifically, China, Korea, India, Indonesia and Thailand posted strong annual growth rates and increase in market shares from 1999, Dataquest said in a statement today.
In 2000, China was the largest PC market in Asia (excluding Japan) with a 37.8 percent market share. It recorded a growth of 32.8 percent to 6.56 million units over 1999.
The next largest market was Korea with a 20.6 percent market share or 3.57 million units. It recorded the highest year-on-year growth of 75.6 percent in the region, excluding Japan (see Table 1 below).
Meanwhile, PC shipments in Australia and Taiwan declined 1.5 percent to 2.06 million units, and 5.5 percent to 1.08 million units respectively. Australia and Taiwan were the third and fourth largest markets respectively last year.
On Australia, Dataquest said: "Despite aggressive pricing amongst the major vendors in the month of December, the lingering effects of the Olympics, unfavorable exchange rates and rising petrol prices (in the later part of 2000) resulted in a cautious buying environment there."
Lowered IT spending from the government and education segments and the lack of economic policy to encourage PC purchases contributed to negative growth for Taiwan, the research firm noted.
China's leading PC manufacturer Legend seized the largest regional market share of 10.5 percent in 2000. It registered a growth of 88.6 percent to 1.82 million units over 1999.
Next in line is Samsung Electronics with a 8.4 percent market share or 1.46 million units. The vendor recorded a year-on-year PC shipment growth of 86.6 percent.
IBM came in third with an 8.1 percent market share, recording an annual growth of 27.9 percent to 1.4 million units. In 1999, Big Blue was in pole position ahead of China's Legend (see Table 2 below).
"With the exception of Dell, non US-based companies performed better," Dataquest said. Dell recorded a 68.9 percent growth with 671,051 units shipped last year.
"China is a huge market in Asia Pacific and its success alone can propel the market share of a vendor.
"China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) may introduce more PC vendors into the market and increase competition. It is therefore imperative that existing vendors have a concrete business strategy and invest to grow country wide," said Dataquest senior analyst Lillian Tay.
Table 1: Unit shipments by country
| 2000 | Share | 1999 | Share | Growth | |
| China | 6,560,521 | 37.8% | 4,939,359 | 36.9% | 32.8% |
| Korea | 3,570,347 | 20.6% | 2,033,540 | 15.2% | 75.6% |
| Australia | 2,058,863 | 11.9% | 2,089,645 | 15.6% | -1.5% |
| Taiwan | 1,080,612 | 6.2% | 1,143,475 | 8.5% | -5.5% |
| India | 1,030,964 | 5.9% | 686,699 | 5.1% | 50.1% |
| Hong Kong | 603,609 | 3.5% | 445,207 | 3.3% | 35.6% |
| Singapore | 525,018 | 3.0% | 491,455 | 3.7% | 6.8% |
| Malaysia | 425,133 | 2.5% | 347,253 | 2.6% | 22.4% |
| Indonesia | 383,425 | 2.2% | 276,769 | 2.1% | 38.5% |
| Thailand | 358,197 | 2.1% | 247,223 | 1.8% | 44.9% |
| New Zealand | 260,669 | 1.5% | 247,962 | 1.9% | 5.1% |
| Philippines | 248,476 | 1.4% | 225,339 | 1.7% | 10.3% |
| Vietnam | 120,572 | 0.7% | 112,470 | 0.8% | 7.2% |
| Rest of Asia/Pacific | 113,740 | 0.7% | 91,571 | 0.7% | 24.2% |
| Asia Pacific | 17,340,146 | 100% | 13,377,966 | 100% | 29.6% |
Source: Gartner Dataquest (February 2001)
Table 2: Unit shipments by vendor
| 2000 | 1999 | Growth | |
| Legend | 1,821,700 | 965,906 | 88.6% |
| Samsung Electronics | 1,463,500 | 784,200 | 86.6% |
| IBM | 1,396,662 | 1,091,650 | 27.9% |
| Compaq Computer | 1,171,049 | 965,824 | 21.2% |
| TriGem Computer | 880,000 | 439,850 | 100.1% |
| Hewlett-Packard | 872,640 | 673,972 | 29.5% |
| Acer | 866,858 | 671,075 | 29.2% |
| Dell Computer | 671,051 | 397,191 | 68.9% |
| Great Wall | 371,391 | 253,364 | 46.6% |
| Founder | 352,570 | 279,774 | 26.0% |
| Others | 7,472,725 | 6,855,161 | 9.0% |
| Total | 17,340,146 | 13,377,966 | 29.6% |
Source: Gartner Dataquest (February 2001)