HP gets on top of the Aussie PC market
Analyst firm IDC yesterday crowned HP the king of Australia's PC market, saying that a quarter of machines shipped over the last three months of 2010 in Australia were from HP.
IDC noted in a statement that HP captured some 22 per cent of the Australian market for PCs and laptops in the fourth quarter of calendar year 2010. That figure was 7 per cent ahead of number two player Acer, which sat at 15 per cent. Acer was just 1 per cent ahead of Dell, which took out third place in the quarter with 14 per cent of the market.
Apple had 11 per cent of the market in the period, with IDC market analyst Amy Cheah noting the company had managed to generate "healthy growth" with the introduction of its new 11-inch MacBook Air laptop. Toshiba came in fifth place with 10 per cent of the market. Others such as Asus and Lenovo fell out of the top five.
IDC noted that HP had regained its number one position from Acer in the consumer space, with Acer being unable to sustain the momentum it had gained locally in the previous quarter to September.
Most consumer-centric vendors such as Acer, Toshiba and Asus experienced weak consumer uptake and struggled to clear the backlog of stock in the channel following a strong quarter in Q3," said Cheah.
In general, IDC noted that the Australian PC market had grown in the quarter (14 per cent year-on-year), but faced a number of challenges. The firm noted that natural disasters such as floods were taking a toll on PC sales, as well as interest rate hikes and delays in the Federal Government's whole-of-government purchasing efforts.
"With the flood disasters in Queensland and other parts of Victoria and New South Wales seriously impacting the local coal mining industry, local businesses and consumer sentiment, IDC has called down its Q1 2011 forecast by 6 per cent to reflect an expected total shipment of 1.4 million units," the company wrote.
"However, as flood rebuilding accelerates in the second half of the calendar year, the PC market is expected to recover as insurance claims flow through and end users look to replace damaged/lost PCs."
HP likes being on top of the table (Credit: IDC)
Other factors slated to affect PC sales in Australia over the next while include the flaw in Intel's new Sandy Bridge chipset, which has seen many vendors being forced to push back their product refresh plans in 2011.
"Channel partners were also reluctant to take on more faulty systems and would rather wait till the fixed chipsets arrive as doubtful end users put off spending in fear of long-term complications," said Cheah.
"Nonetheless, Intel's quick turnaround time will be a relief to all as the fixed chipsets are expected to arrive in time for the June tax rush period before the end of financial year."
In addition, it remains unclear what impact the incoming flood of tablet devices such as the Apple iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab and Motorola Xoom will have on the PC market.
"Although the majority of media tablets are currently embraced as complementary devices, these devices are eating into consumers' share of wallet," IDC said.