Acer, Samsung loosen grip as Philippine PC market plateaus in Q2 — IDC

MANILA, Philippines — PC shipments to the Philippines stagnated to a meager 1.5-percent growth in the 2nd quarter of the year, with leaders Acer and Samsung losing market share due to overstocking problems, research firm IDC reported recently.

Smaller PC vendors, IDC noted, outperformed both Acer and Samsung during the quarter as the former launched “aggressive pricing and hardware bundling strategies.”

The total number of PC units shipped within the quarter amounted to 551,000, more than half of which were consumer-grade notebooks.

While waning in numbers, the desktop form factor still turned out to be dominant during the 2nd quarter of the year, with over five desktops sold for every four notebooks, IDC found.

During the period, netbooks — or mininotebooks, as IDC calls it — gained renewed prominence among Filipino consumers as the smaller vendors were able to resolve the shortage of netbook processors reported in previous quarters.

“MNC PC brands are starting to encroach upon the market share of one another as the consumer market is not expanding at a rapid enough pace,” explained Juan-Jin Ng, market analyst for client devices research at IDC Asia/Pacific.

“As PC prices grow even more homogenous across most major brands, we will eventually see the stranglehold of the top 2 vendors on the retail market declining over the coming quarters,” he added.

Public-sector PC deployments, IDC noted, grew to a standstill during the second quarter, but incremental rollouts by the Department of Education helped boost commercial PC shipments to a 1.7 percent growth.

IDC believes the resilient Philippine economy, which grew by a rate of 5.9 percent from April to June, had likely contributed to a still positive growth rate during the period.

“The resilience of the economy in the Philippines to the global economic crises as well as the commitment of the current government towards IT spending has kept the overall commercial segment outlook positive,” Juan-Jin added.

Prospects aren’t too bright in the third quarter of the year for PC shipments, though, as vendors hold off on stocking current models in anticipation of Windows 8, due to be released on October 26.

“As such, the PC market should see a boost only in Q4. However, the PC market should find temporary respite in the commercial segment as government and enterprise spending, especially from BPOs, are expected to get underway in Q3,” the IDC analyst said.

source: interaksyon.com

Tablets to overtake notebook PCs by 2016: study

Tablet computers are expected to overtake notebook PCs by 2016 as consumers shift to newer devices like the Apple iPad, a survey said Tuesday.

The survey by research firm NPD said tablets will be “the growth driver” for the mobile computer market over the next few years.

Overall mobile PC shipments including tablets will grow from 347 million in 2012 to over 809 million by 2017.

Notebook PC shipments are expected to increase from 208 million in 2012 to 393 million by 2017, but tablet shipments are expected to grow from 121 million to 416 million in the same period.

A key driver for tablet growth is adoption in North America, Japan and Western Europe, which will account for 66 percent of shipments in 2012 and remain in the 60 percent range throughout the next few years, NPD said.

“Consumer preference for mobile computing devices is shifting from notebook to tablet PCs, particularly in mature markets,” said Richard Shim, analyst at NPD.

“While the lines between tablet and notebook PCs are blurring, we expect mature markets to be the primary regions for tablet PC adoption. New entrants are tending to launch their initial products in mature markets. Services and infrastructure needed to create compelling new usage models are often better established in mature markets.”

In its most recent quarterly survey on mobile devices, NPD said in May that Apple’s iPad had 62.8 percent of the tablet market, with Samsung a distant second at 7.5 percent.

Since then Google said it would sell its own branded tablet made by Asus, while Microsoft introduced a tablet that converts to a notebook, to be on sale later this year.

source: interaksyon.com

Dell refreshes business notebook lineup, but no new ultrabooks in sight

MANILA, Philippines — While every other PC manufacturer in the world is unveiling their fresh takes on Intel’s ultrabook, technology company Dell decided to update its arsenal of laptops with the chipmaker’s latest Ivy Bridge processors.

Yet, despite the fresh processor bump for most of its notebooks in the Latitude and Vostro lines, Dell didn’t bring in an updated version of its ultrabook, the XPS 13, which was launched locally in April.

Dell Philippines Country Manager Christopher Papa told reporters at the sidelines of the launch that updating the XPS 13 is in their roadmap, although more focus is being given on their commercial business for now.

Nonetheless, Papa said they were not expecting the strong demand for their consumer-grade XPS 13 ultrabook, a 13-inch device squeezed into an 11-inch chassis that retails from P59,000 to P79,000 depending on the internal specifications.

Without mentioning figures, the Dell head honcho said they had to ramp up production of the sought-after notebook after initial shipments to various markets around the world failed to meet consumer demand.

But gaining market share in the consumer PC segment is far from Dell’s objectives moving forward, as declared by Papa in an earlier interview saying the company is focusing on high-margin segments of the business, particularly the enterprise market.

It is for this reason that majority of the products launched by Dell on Thursday are geared toward SMBs and large enterprises, two segments that are high-growth areas for the Round Rock, Texas-based company.

“Today’s launch is a testament to our commitment to end-user computing, and we have differentiated ourselves by adding more value to our products,” said Richard Teo, president at Dell Philippines.

“We have added a lot of technologies that surround manageability, security and system management to allow users to have full control of their units,” he added.

Durable, business-class notebooks

Bannering the new notebook offerings are the redesigned and re-engineered laptops in the Latitude line, targeted at enterprise-class customers, which feature the same look and feel as their predecessors but come fitted with Intel’s Ivy Bridge processors.

Johny Dermawan, senior brand manager at Dell South Asia, said the new Latitude laptops are “designed to be durable” considering the mobile needs of most workers today.

By tearing down one Latitude unit in front of the press, Dermawan demonstrated how the internal portions of the notebook was designed, starting with the magnesium alloy bottom cover that acts as the doorway to all of the unit’s components.

The new Latitude laptop’s internal parts and LCD screen are protected by a tri-metal chassis that keeps them in place and absorbs unintentional external pressure, which Dermawan said is a common occurrence with users fitting their laptops along with other things inside their bags.

The specific models unveiled by Dell on Thursday include: The redesigned 14-inch Latitude E640; the E6230, E630, E6430 and E6530 notebooks measuring 12.5 to 15.6 inches; the E5430 and E5530 which are budget-friendly options for professionals; and the ruggedized E640 ATG notebook that can withstand extreme conditions.

Meanwhile, Dell’s Vostro line of PCs, which is targeted at small and medium businesses, received the following updates: the Vostro 3360 (13 inch), Vostro 3460 (14 inch) and Vostro 3560 (15 inch), which are designed to be thin and portable.

Dell’s new Latitude laptops are now available and will start retailing from P55,100, while the Vostro notebooks can be bought beginning next week although no price points have been detailed thus far.

article source: interaksyon.com