Asus Leads in Q2 Asia Pacific PC Shipment Growth: Gartner Data

Taipei, Sept. 11, 2012 (CENS)--Asia Pacific personal computer (PC) shipments totaled 30.3 million units in the second quarter, a 2.6% decline compared with the same quarter in 2011, according to Gartner Inc.

The major market intelligence firm said that the most notable decline came from China's PC market at 5.4%, marking its first year-on-year (YoY) negative growth ever.

The top-five PC vendor in the region were Lenovo, Acer, Dell, HP and Asus; among which only Asus and Lenovo enjoyed shipment growth, at 24.8% and 12.6% YoY, respectively. Acer's shipments declined 1.3% YoY, compared to Dell's 16.2% drop and HP's 18.9% decline.

Taiwan-based Asus shipped about 2.13 million PCs in the second quarter, further pulling close the distance with the No. 4 Dell, which delivered 2.48 million units. With a set policy to further develop sales in China, J.L. Shen, Asus's CEO, claimed that his company has decided to add about 1,000 sales points in third- to sixth-class cities in China within one year. Industry sources said that Asus is likely to become the No. 4 PC vendor in Asia Pacific in the third quarter.

"Gloomy worldwide economies have dampened PC spending in the region over the past year," said Lillian Tay, principal analyst for Gartner.

The overall decline was reflected in both the mobile PC and desk-based PC shipment segments, decreasing 3.7% and 1.7% respectively. The professional segment declined for the second time this year, down 8% YoY in the second quarter, Gartner said, as organizations deferred PC purchases where possible and reigned in their expansion plans, preferring to be more prudent not knowing how the market situation will evolve with all the uncertainties. The consumer segment managed to show better results but only grew 3 percent in comparison to the same quarter in 2011.

Some of the biggest declines happened in Singapore (21.5%), Korea (11.9%) and Australia (9.2%). Smaller declines occurred in Hong Kong (1.4%), New Zealand (2.2%) and Taiwan (5%). Not all countries faced decline, however, with countries like India and Malaysia experiencing strong growth of 17% and 21.6% respectively, largely driven by mobile PC growth.