PC shipments to Philippines peaked in 2nd quarter

Personal computer shipments to the country reached a record 465,000 units in the second quarter, fueled by demand for entry-level 14-inch notebooks.

According to research firm International Data Corp. (IDC), shipments of portable PCs outpaced desktop terminals at 274,000 units, or 59 percent of all PCs shipped during the April-June period. Desktop PC shipments stood at 190,000 units.

On a year-on-year basis, second-quarter PC shipments grew 10 percent. Compared with the first quarter, shipments grew by 30 percent.

The introduction of newer PC models, especially the 14-inch notebooks, also managed to stimulate the price-sensitive consumer market. As a result, sales to the consumer segment accounted for 64 percent of overall PC sales in the second quarter.

The netbook segment further ran out of steam during the second quarter due to the entry of more affordable 14-inch and bigger notebooks. Consumers showed more interest in conventional notebooks that offered stronger features at price points that were not much higher than those of netbooks.

“Discerning home users are now willing to spend on larger form factors, which provide more bang for the buck,” IDC Asean market analyst for personal systems research Ng Juan Jin said.

According to the IDC Asia Pacific Quarterly PC Tracker 2Q 2011, demand for mini-notebooks, or netbooks, dropped 8 percent, while consumer appetite for notebooks bigger than 13 inches surged 35 percent against that of the first quarter.

The stagnating specifications and functionality of netbooks, Juan Jin said, also contributed to the shift in demand for conventional notebooks. Netbooks also took a beating from the increasingly ubiquitous media tablets and smartphones.

In the commercial segment, business process outsourcing firms contributed to the rise in overall PC spending in the country in the second quarter, with the small and medium enterprise market also helping boost PC demand.

Public sector PC spending, on the other hand, slowed in line with the delay in the implementation of big-ticket government projects.

For the remaining months of the year, Juan Jin said, the local PC market should continue to experience growth. However, vendors should be cautious, considering how the United States’ economic woes could adversely affect the BPO space, which fueled commercial PC spending in the second quarter.

“Furthermore, overenthusiasm in [the second quarter] retail shipments may have caused some channel inventory backlogs, reminiscent of the 4Q 2010-1Q 2011 period. However, as government tenders get underway and vendors have new product launches in their pipelines, there remains some room for slight improvement in the upcoming quarter,” Juan Jin said.