PC sales up 29 per cent

By RICHARD PAMATATAU

Business and consumer confidence backed by the strong New Zealand dollar have propelled personal computer sales for the third quarter this year up 29 per cent over the same time in 2002.

Figures released today by IT industry monitor IDC Research show Kiwis bought 111,117 PCs in the third quarter of the year with American giant Hewlett Packard grabbing the top position across desktop, business, portable and high end servers with 33.4 percent market share.

Name brands dominate with HP also staving off Toshiba for the winner's spot in the rapidly growing mobile computing market. Portable computer sales are up 47 per cent over the same time last year with sales of 26,398 units.

Sonja Olsson, IDC senior analyst hardware research said despite the PC market's seasonal decline between the second and third quarters with a fall of 10 per cent overall sales are up on a yearly comparative basis.

Local companies do not feature as significant single players, she said with Dell Computer, IBM and Acer following in the market share positions.

Olsson said during the third quarter, business and consumer confidence drove strong year-on-year growth - whereas, a year ago, uncertainty over the global economy stymied sales.

"Competitively priced bundles of a PC with desirable hardware such as LCD monitors, digital cameras, wireless peripherals and multifunction peripherals continued to be a driver in Q3", said Olsson.

Dell claimed second spot from IBM making gains in the consumer and small business space with a series of competitively priced and strongly promoted offerings, she said while Acer also managed to strengthen its share of the overall market, stealing fourth position from Toshiba, who rounded out the top five over all.

Revenue from PC sales is expected to decline, said Olsson, even though sales are up because pricing is aggressive.