China will become a major driver of the worldwide PC market over the next five years, research firm Gartner Inc said recently, citing commercial demand from lower-tier Chinese cities.
The global PC market is forecast to grow at 9.2 percent year-on-year this year, slower than previous years because of the impact of tablet computers, stalling business models and changing consumer behavior, according to Gartner.
As mature markets like the US, Europe and Japan have encountered economic headwinds, emerging markets will represent nearly 50 percent of the global PC market this year, which is expected to reach about 385 million units in total, the research firm said.
Tracy Tsai, principal research analyst at Gartner, told a media briefing that PC shipments in China reached 16.8 million units in the first quarter of this year, pushing the country past the US to become the world’s largest PC market.
market driver
“China represents a great driver of the global PC market,” she said. “All PC vendors are increasing their investments in the country to consolidate their market share over the next three to five years.”
In the first three months of this year, Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) led the Chinese PC market with over 25 percent of the market share, followed by Dell Inc, Acer Inc (宏碁), Hewlett-Packard Co and Asustek Computer Inc (華碩).
Taiwan-based Acer recorded the highest year-on-year shipment growth of 203 percent in the period thanks to a tie-up with Chinese PC vendor Founder Group (方正集團), while Hewlett-Packard, which continues to be hurt by product recalls in 2009 and last year, became the biggest loser among the top five vendors with a decrease of 11 percent from a year earlier.
opportunities
Tsai predicted better PC growth opportunities in the commercial segment of tier three to tier six Chinese cities from this year to 2013, which will need more hardware such as computers to improve infrastructure.
However, growth will be slower than that experienced in higher-tier cities because of relatively lower personal incomes and fragmented reseller channels, Tsai said.
According to Gartner, the compound annual growth rate in the Chinese PC market will be around 16.5 percent from this year to 2015, lower than the 24 percent recorded from 2006 to last year.
“The PC market is expected to benefit from China’s next economic plan, which will shorten the wealth gap in inner and western regions by 2015 and make personal computers affordable to most Chinese,” Tsai said.
Small businesses will continue to be the fastest-growing professional segment, while the replacement of desktop computers by mobile PCs will accelerate, Tsai added.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six