Value rises as PC sales drop away

By PETER GRIFFIN

Sales in the PC market declined for the first time during a frustrating 2001 for PC vendors.

But the value of the market jumped nearly 5 per cent on the previous year to $1.28 billion, says analyst group IDC.

New Zealand consumers and businesses bought 332,143 PCs last year, about 700 fewer than in 2000, despite the predominance of competitive bundled deals aimed at the consumer PC buyer.

Compaq emerged the victor for the year with 22.7 per cent of the market, followed by Hewlett-Packard, then IBM, then Dell. Local assembler The PC Company finished the year in fifth place, having sold more than 20,000 PCs.

"We were pretty happy with how things ended up - we had about 8.9 per cent of the desktop market in the fourth quarter," said The PC Company's managing director, Colin Brown.

He did not yet have the data for the company's overall market share.

Microsoft, which measures how many Microsoft operating system licences are sold to PC vendors, picked a decline in sales more substantial than that signalled by IDC.

Brett Roberts, manager of small business and OEM at Microsoft, said IDC's PC sales figures and those of Microsoft were usually different because they calculate the figure in different ways.

"IDC talks calendar years and we measure fiscal years.

"It's kind of an apples and oranges comparison, but our figures are usually slightly lower than theirs."

Mr Roberts said the important thing to watch was market value.

"When the average sale price goes up, it often means there are more consumer PCs selling, because generally they have higher specifications and are higher priced than a bare bones corporate Machine."

He said growth in the notebook market, where sales grew 9.4 per cent last year, would also have boosted the value of the market overall.

Toshiba was the clear winner in the notebook market.

But by the fourth quarter, it was feeling the effects of increasing competition, with 29.5 per cent of the market, down from 36.1 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2000.

IDC said sales of higher-value servers were up 19.6 per cent during the year, also contributing to the overall increased spend.

IDC is expecting an increase in PC shipments of 6.8 per cent this year, but revenue overall is expected to decline.

It said a large portion of the increased sales would come towards the end of the year, when the Y2K sales cycle matures.

Companies that upgraded before the turn of the millennium would again be looking to buy hardware, but the average value of each computer purchased would be lower this time, leading to a forecast decline in revenue of 5.7 per cent.

Mr Roberts said the figures were already looking healthier than expected.

"Indications are that it has turned around a bit, but I don't see people shouting from the roof tops just yet."