Acer Inc (宏碁) and several global PC vendors have been selected as brand names eligible to take part in the Chinese government's "home electronics down to the countryside" stimulus package, the DigiTimes reported yesterday, citing a joint statement by China's Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Commerce issued on Thursday.
Brand-name companies including Dell Inc, Hewlett-Packard Co (HP) and Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) will likely find additional sources of revenue and expand into rural China as the Chinese government gives out subsidies to its rural residents making purchases from designated PC vendors, the DigiTimes said.
Not enjoying the news so much were Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) and BenQ Corp (明基), who both lost their bids for the business opportunity.
COMMENTS
BenQ officials expressed regret over the outcome and said the company would continue pushing sales through its various channels in China.
Officials at both Acer and Asustek were unavailable for comments yesterday.
Topology Research Institute (拓墣產業), a Taipei-based research house, estimates PC shipments will total 2.5 million units this year alone because of this policy, which would bring a total business value of NT$38.2 billion (US$1.1 billion) for all global PC vendors, contract manufacturers and other component makers.
Acer and Asustek achieved shipment growths of 57.9 percent and 145 percent for the full year last year, while market leaders HP and Dell grew in line with the overall industry at 12.9 percent and 9.5 percent respectively, market intelligence firm iSuppli Corp said yesterday in a report.
In terms of worldwide PC market share, the top three vendors remained in their previous rankings with HP, Dell and Acer taking the top three spots with 18.7 percent, 14.4 percent and 10.6 percent market shares, and 55.97 million, 43.26 million and 31.81 million units shipped last year, iSuppli said.
On Thursday, research firm IDC projected worldwide PC shipments would drop 8 percent in the first half of the year and said that the decline comes after "five years of almost uninterrupted double-digit growth."
NOT AS BAD AS 2001
The forecast dovetails with Gartner Inc's estimate this week that PC unit sales are likely to tumble 11.9 percent to 257 million units this year.
IDC doesn’t expect the downturn to be as bad for PC makers as when the dot-com bubble burst in 2001, however.
"To be sure, the PC market is in for a bumpy ride," Loren Loverde, an IDC director, said in a statement. “Nevertheless, there are a number of reasons why the PC market will not fare dramatically worse in the current environment than it did in the 2001 recession — even if the current economic environment is notably worse.”
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