PC market sluggish in Q3: IDC

IDC’s preliminary results show that the Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) PC market grew 4 per cent sequentially but declined 5 per cent year-on-year in the third quarter to reach 31.4 million units, coming in lower than IDC’s initial forecasts. Ongoing sluggishness in economies across the region continued to weigh down on consumer sentiment, with channels, too, choosing to clear out old inventory before taking in fresh stocks for the upcoming Windows 8-based PCs, all leading to an unusually quiet third quarter.

However, China managed to sustain its third-quarter seasonality, which helped many vendors this quarter. Lenovo remained ahead in the region, relying on aggressive price cuts and promotions to boost shipments in China while also introducing several new models there. HP adopted a similar pricing strategy in China to bounce back from a low second quarter. Asus struggled to sustain its momentum in Asean and India, though it more than made up for this with a sharp rebound in its other big market – China. Dell, similarly, managed to rebound in China after a few quiet quarters, helping to boost the vendor’s overall regional performance.

“With 2012 having been quiet so far, October 26 will carry a lot of expectations, not just for Microsoft but for all PC vendors who are anxious to see the new OS deliver on its promise of fuelling another momentum in the PC market,” says Handoko Andi, senior market analyst for client devices at IDC. “And the good thing is that channels have been anticipating the arrival of Windows 8, which will help shipments in the fourth quarter.  However, 2013 will continue to be a challenge for PC industry vendors as they still need to jockey for consumer mindshare in a rapidly expanding variety of device choices.”