Asian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) outside Japan will spend nearly US$10 billion on personal computers (PCs) and servers this year, a technology research firm said in Singapore yesterday.
Notebook computers are also gaining popularity among such companies as workforces become more mobile, IDC Asia Pacific said in a press statement.
"The PC market is essentially a more mature market, with growth arising from SMEs in developing countries like India and China," said Lau Tong-Yen, senior analyst at IDC.
For developed markets such as Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, expenditure on desktops and notebooks will gradually shrink as more money is devoted to product replacement, Lau said.
IDC predicted that SMEs in the region will spend about US$9.1 billion on PCs and just over US$800 million on servers this year.
It also expected SMEs to gradually increase their contribution to the region's overall expenditure on PCs and servers from 28 percent last year to 31 percent in 2008.
More firms are also opting for notebook rather than desktop PCs, with the former's share of total PC spending among SMEs in the region rising to about 38 percent last year from 29 percent in 2002, IDC said.
It expects the percentage to continue rising due mainly to the increase in mobile workforces within the region, improvements in the reliability and functionality of notebooks and declining prices.
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