PC’s nosedive as tablets take over the computing show.
Australian PC market slumped 21% compared to last year, despite interest rate cuts, IDC said today.
1.21 million PC’s were sold in ANZ during first three months of 2013 – with 1.07 m sales in Oz, as more consumers skip or delay purchases, and trendy tablets like iPad, Androids become the popular mobile alternative.
The end of financial year demand didn’t help in New Zealand either, where demand fell 27%.
The PC market saw little upside in Q1, and the outlook is looking “gloomy” for the rest of the year, warns IDC analyst, Amy Cheah.
Overall, IDC forecasts the ANZ PC market to decline 15% in 2013.
HP (19%) and Apple (18%) are now almost neck and neck in the Aussie PC race, while Dell, Lenovo and Toshiba all made it into the top 5 PC brands.
Key winners in Q1 were Apple, Lenovo and Acer – all vendors with strong presence in the education space.
And with iPad still the top tablet, it looks like Apple is laughing all the way in the computing race.
“The softness in PC sales across the consumer and commercial space reflects a declining demand for PCs,” warns Cheah.
Apart from the education segment, which saw major rollouts in New South Wales and Queensland, other commercial segments remained “soft”.
Large corporate, government tenders have also been cut over the past year.
“Channels are increasingly conservative, limiting product offering as a way to minimise their exposure to the PC market.
“With the upcoming Intel and AMD processors refresh in June, there will be extra caution to avoid building up on inventory of previous generation PCs, particularly in Australia as local channels close off the end of financial year.”
Vendors took a more cautious approach this quarter, cutting back on shipments given the slow market.
