Gartner says Asian computer sales to increase by 12.7%

Asia-Pacific computer sales excluding Japan rose 13.8 percent to 33.1 million last year, with a similarly strong performance expected this year, the Gartner research house said yesterday.

For this year, the US technology analyst firm said computer sales were forecast to grow 12.7 percent to 37.3 million.

"Demand [last year] was exceptionally strong from the professional market where replacement as well as expansionary demand drove shipments," Gartner analyst Lillian Tay said.

"This was assisted by the better economic situation as well as the need to replace ageing PCs [personal computers]," she said.

Strong demand for desktops

Desktop PC shipments increased 10.4 percent last year and are expected to improve further with growth of 10.8 percent this year, boosted by strong demand in China, India, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, Gartner said.

Notebook or mobile PCs should grow 21.3 percent after 31.3 percent last year.

Of the 13 major regional markets covered by the Gartner report, China recorded the biggest sales last year with 14.93 million, up 14.9 percent from 2003.

India was a distant second with 3.39 million, a rise of 34.4 percent, followed by Australia with sales up 14.7 percent to 3.29 million.

South Korea was the fourth biggest market with sales of 3.27 million, a decline of 0.7 percent, followed by Taiwan where shipments rose 3.6 percent to 2.41 million.

Thailand was 18.9 percent higher at 1.49 millions, Malaysia rose 11.1 percent at 1.04 million and Indonesia was up 12.5 percent to 698,000.

Hong Kong was the ninth largest market with sales 11.7 percent higher at 661,000 followed by New Zealand which was up 19.8 percent at 571,000.

Singapore was 8.4 percent stronger with 566,000, the Philippines rose 8.1 percent to 342,000 and Vietnam increased 25.9 percent to 273,000.

Sales in the rest of the region registered a 13 percent rise to 177,000, Gartner said.

Lenovo tops in China

Separately, Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) held on to its top spot in China's personal computer market, with the firm holding a market share of 25.1 percent last year, Gartner said.

Lenovo shipped 34 percent more computers last year compared to a year earlier, Gartner said, without giving any absolute figures.

Chinese computer makers claimed the second and third spots.

Founder Electronics Co (方正) came in second with a market share of 9.9 percent.

Its shipments surged 80 percent. At third place was Tsinghua Tongfang Co (清華東方) with 7.8 percent.

Dell Inc was fourth with 7.2 percent and IBM, ranked fifth with 5.1 percent.

Lenovo could consolidate its dominance of the Chinese PC market this year after agreeing to buy IBM's PC business last December, but the deal is facing scrutiny by the US Congress as a possible national security threat.

Another US firm, Hewlett-Packard Co was sixth with 4.8 percent, while its growth in shipments was the second highest at 70.4 percent last year.