Sales of PCs in Taiwan Slides in Q4, 2007: IDC Taiwan

Taipei, March 21, 2008 (CENS)--A total of 645,561 personal computers (PCs), including desktop and notebook models, were sold in Taiwan in the fourth quarter of 2007, down 12% from previous quarter, according to IDC Taiwan.

IDC Taiwan attributed the declined PC sales in the fourth quarter of 2007 to uncertain corporate and consumer confidence before the presidential election on the island (March 22, 2008), as well as the poor performance of domestic stock exchange market. In addition, the local subsidiary of the international market research firm said, the third quarter is a traditional high season.

Sales of notebook PCs during the period reached 214,223 units, a clear decrease of 17% from previous quarter, IDC Taiwan pointed out. In addition to negative impacts from political uncertainties and weak consumption confidence, the subprime financial crisis affected both avliable personal and corporate spending. Notebook PC sales during the period, however, saw a 15% increase from the fourth quarter of 2006 thanks to the sliding prices of such devices attracting more purchase willingness from original desktop buyers.

Dickie Chang, personal computing analyst at IDC Taiwan, pointed out that the market appearance of low-price notebook PCs, such as the ASUS Eee PC ultra-mobile PC (UMPC), has attracted many technology-curious consumers as well as affected the decision-making process of notebook PC buyers. However, Chang furthered, computing performance still plays a vital role for consumers in Taiwan, a mature market.

The analyst concluded that budget-priced notebook PCs that can achieve good balance in performance, i.e. better cost/performance (C/P) ratio, are expected to enjoy high sales growth in Taiwan in the future.

Regarding notebook PC unit shipments, Asus and Acer still maintained their No. 1 and No. 2 positions, respectively, in the fourth quarter of 2007, followed by HP and Lenovo.

In the fourth quarter of 2007, 431,338 desktop PCs were also sold in Taiwan, down 10% from previous quarter. IDC Taiwan pointed out that the fourth-quarter business desktop market enjoyed slight growth driven by official procurements to fully spend remaining budgets; while the family segment was affected by the weak domestic stock market and the narrowing price gap from notebook models.

The top-four desktop PC brands in Taiwan remained unchanged during the period, including (in sequence) Acer, Asus, HP, and Lenovo.

IDC Taiwan said that the first-quarter PC market is expected to continue being weak due to the pre-presidential election factors, which would cause conservative governmental and educational procurements.