China and India became the two main growth engines for the PC market in the third quarter in the Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan, technology research firm IDC said on Thursday.
In the July-to-September quarter, PC shipments in the region grew 6 percent from the previous quarter and 13 percent from a year earlier to reach 31.9 million units, beating IDC’s previous forecast of an 11 percent increase year-on-year.
IDC said that consumers in China finally shrugged off tablet distractions to return to PC buying in the third quarter, with enterprises also showing sustained demand in that country.
Holiday periods and pent-up demand from the past two quarters helped boost the consumer market in India, although enterprises there did not share this enthusiasm, given the ongoing economic turmoil in the US and the eurozone, the research firm said.
“While it is great to see China and India carrying the region along, another tier of developing countries, such as Thailand, is increasingly playing a more significant role,” said Bryan Ma (馬伯遠), associate vice president for client devices research at IDC Asia-Pacific.
“The economy of course continues to be a question mark, but if domestic demand remains stable, and if the floods in Thailand don’t cause too much disruption, IDC expects the region to stay on track or even surpass its full-year growth forecast of 12 percent,” Ma said.
China’s Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想), driven by its ambition to compete on market share both locally and globally, continued to forge ahead in the market with a 22.8 percent share, while Taiwan’s Acer Inc (宏碁) came second with 11.7 percent.
Dell Inc and Hewlett-Packard Co tied in third place with a 10.1 percent market share, while another Taiwanese vendor, Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), remained in fifth with 7.2 percent, although it narrowed the gap between itself and the bigger players.
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