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APAC PC sales plummet 11 per cent after political upheaval

Election time forces EIGHTH consecutive quarterly decline

Global PC growth engine APAC suffered a record eighth consecutive quarterly decline in the first three months of 2014 thanks to political upheaval in the region and the continued popularity of smartphones and tablets, according to IDC.

The analyst’s preliminary APAC (ex Japan) PC shipment stats for the period revealed an 11 per cent year-on-year decline to 23.8 million units, which is an 8 per cent drop from the previous quarter.

It claimed that elections in some of the larger markets has had a negative impact on sales.

In India, for example, an “ongoing large education project” was temporarily shelved due to the general election there which reduced its figures by 500,000 units, IDC said.

In Indonesia, enterprise PC sales suffered as government spending was diverted towards the elections, while in Thailand continued political unrest impacted the economy.

However, the decline – in enterprise sales at least – is expected to slow in the second half of the year as various regions get back to normal after election time, according to report author Andi Handoko.

For example, the 500,000 PC units initially expected to be delivered in India from January to June will likely resume, he told The Reg.

On the consumer side, PC sales continue to be impacted by the popularity of smartphones and tablets and “cautious channel intake”, IDC claimed.

All of the top five vendors experienced year-on-year declines, but Lenovo kept its spot at the top of the PC charts with a 23.6 per cent market share (-6.5 per cent).

Second was Dell with 10.7 per cent (-1.2 per cent) and HP came in third with 9.5 per cent (-11.5 per cent) thanks to poor performance in India and China, IDC said.

Asus (7.8 per cent) leap-frogged Acer (6.5 per cent) into fourth thanks to strong channel sales and a good show in the Chinese consumer sector with entry-level products.

The eighth consecutive quarterly decline is the worst on record, according to Handoko.

“The last time it happened was in 1998 during the Asian economy crisis and it only happened for three consecutive quarters with negative YoY growth,” he told The Reg.

However, APAC continues to be a major growth engine for the industry, with the region expected to account for 1 in 3 PCs shipped globally this year, he added. ®

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