Australian notebook market explosive growth

Stan Beer
Thursday, 15 December 2005 17:39

IT Industry - Market

IDC has recently released the final results for the Australian Notebook PC market for 2Q 2005. The results show the Australian PC market decreasing by 8% sequentially but increasing by 42% from the same period in 2004.

The third quarter of 2005 was a brief return to normality in what has been a very interesting year in the notebook PC market. After seeing growth of over 50% in the consumer notebook space in the second quarter, the home segment saw only a 1% increase sequentially in 3Q.

In addition IDC found the following key highlights on the 3Q notebook PC market:

1) Four Out of Every Ten Notebooks are Widescreen: In the third quarter of 2004 only 18% of notebook PCs were widescreen. In 3Q 2005 the share of widescreen notebook PCs has more than doubled, garnering 42% of total notebook PCs sold during that period. Additionally, IDC has seen these devices are penetrating the medium business market (more than 100 employees) and seeding with executives at the corporate level.

2) Market is Overcrowded: All the new vendors who arrived at the close of 2004 have now been in the local market for one year and it is still very crowded with local system builders looking to get into the game soon. The notebook PC market is without a doubt one of the most crowded IT markets in Australia.

3) Sub $1,000 Notebook Market Slowing: After a very good sell in of sub-$1000 notebooks in 2Q, the market slowed with sell through being an issue through some retailers. IDC expects this category to pick back up again during the holiday buying season.

Michael Sager, senior analyst, PC Hardware, said, "HP led the total notebook market for the second quarter in a row with 21% share, riding on success in both the consumer and commercial sectors. Toshiba was able to make a solid comeback and finish in second place during 3Q with 17.8% share as its efforts at focusing on its channel appear to be paying dividends. Acer finished just behind Toshiba in third position after experiencing dramatic growth in the second quarter."

"While the battle is to be fought in the retail channel for the consumer market, Dell is working on its direct strategy to the market and finished in fourth position with 14.2% share. Lenovo who, for all intents and purposes is still a commercial notebook vendor, finished in fifth position with 7.2% share. Apple, Asus, and LG rounded out the top 8, with the latter two still working to grow beyond their strong consumer base into the SME market", said Mr Sager.

Top 8 Notebook PC Vendors by Market Share

Overall Share:
HP 21.1%
Toshiba 17.8%
Acer 17.6%
Dell 14.2%
Lenovo 7.2%
Apple 4.1%
Asus 2.6%
LG 2.4%
Others 13.0%
Total 100.0%