Asia Pacific PC market takes a pause, posts 5% on-year decline in 3Q12, says IDC

Press release, October 18; Joseph Tsai, DIGITIMES [Thursday 18 October 2012]

IDC's preliminary results show that the Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) PC market grew 4% sequentially but declined 5% on year in the third quarter of 2012 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 sentiments, with channels too, choosing to clear out old inventory before taking in fresh stocks for upcoming Windows 8-based PCs, all leading to an unusually quiet third quarter.

Fortunately, China managed to sustain its third-quarter seasonality, which helped many vendors in the 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. Hewlett-Packard (HP) adopted a similar pricing strategy in China to bounce back from a low second quarter. Asustek Computer 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 fueling 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 of 2012. 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."

IDC: Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) PC shipment market share, 3Q12
Rank	Vendor	3Q12 market share	2Q12 market share	3Q11 market share	Shipments Y/Y
1	Lenovo	25.3%	25.3%	22.1%	9%
2	Acer	9.9%	10.6%	11.3%	(16%)
3	HP	9.3%	8.4%	9.7%	(9%)
4	Dell	9.2%	8.6%	9.8%	(10%)
5	Asustek	8.1%	7%	7%	10%
	Others	38.2%	40.1%	40.1%	(10%)
	Total	100%	100%	100%	(5%)

Source: IDC, compiled by Digitimes, October 2012