Legend expects PC market in China to grow despite slump

China's top computer maker, Beijing-based Legend Group (聯想集團), expects the market for personal computers in China to grow 30 percent this year despite a slump in PC sales worldwide, an unidentified spokeswoman said on Friday.

The company said the good times should keep on rolling in China's PC market for the next five to 10 years on sales growth of 25 percent to 30 percent per year.

Many PC companies in Taiwan pinned their hopes on China's PC market to save their year-end balance sheets and even become the local information technology industry's market of the future.

The dismal market for PCs worldwide this year pushed Acer Inc's (宏電) second quarter revenue down 16 percent compared to the same quarter last year, to NT$24.9 billion.

Earlier this year the company announced plans to quit the North American computer market and make China its top focus.

Acer expects to be the No. 3 retailer in China by the end of the year, behind Legend and International Business Machines. China and Taiwan already account for 20 percent of Acer brand revenues, and PC sales in China doubled last year to US$187 million -- turning a profit for the company.

Other Taiwanese firms hoping to catch Legend's rising wave are First International Computer Inc (大眾電腦) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦). Both firms reportedly inked agreements to supply Legend with PCs and notebook computers during Computex Taipei in early June.

According to sales figures released by US marketing firm International Data Corp (IDC) last Thursday, Legend shipped 626,700 PCs during the second quarter, a 44.5 percent increase year on year. Legend has not announced its own results for the quarter.

IDC also crowned Legend king of PC market share in the Asia-Pacific region excluding Japan. According to IDC, Legend's share of the Asian PC market -- excluding Japan -- increased to 12.1 percent, followed by IBM and Compaq Computer Corp.