Good News From South America-PC sales project to be up 28% in 98.
Source: IDC
A recent IDC survey of some 100 channels in Latin America reveals
the following only relevant data is posted here as most of it is regarding vendors/resellers.
1.PC sales revenue to be up 28% YOY.
2.Channels shows no loyalty to any particular vendor.
4.Channels pays greatest attention to business customers.
5.Larege business represents 30% of the revenues,Medium business 24%
small business 13%.
Excerpt.
..When channel partners were asked to name vendors' strengths, quality was most frequently mentioned for Canon, Compaq, Epson, HP, IBM, Lexmark, Netscape, and Xerox. Marketing was cited as Microsoft's greatest strength. Acer was the only brand to have price as its top strength, followed by marketing
It is IDC's opinion that product is becoming less of a differentiator to both the channel and to the end-user. Examination of vendors' weaknesses is much more enlightening as to how vendors can and should differentiate themselves. Service/support was the most-frequently named weakness of vendors by the channels interviewed. This weakness was most often cited for Compaq, Epson, IBM, and Microsoft. Lexmark, Okidata, and Canon were all viewed as weak in marketing.
Among the nearly 100 desktop channel partners interviewed across the Latin America region, the PC vendor named tops in providing marketing support to the channel was Compaq. HP followed closely in second place. Only in Argentina did HP pass Compaq as the number-one vendor for PC marketing support.
The World Wide Web is beginning to reshape desktop distribution in Latin America, but has a long way to go - especially compared with counterparts in networking and server channels. Of the nearly 100 desktop channels interviewed for this study, forty-nine percent had a Web site. Overall, IDC Latin America does not expect the Web to have a very measurable impact on the distribution of products until 1999. At that time, it will be repeat buyers of technology and users who are upgrading that will dominate the e-commerce landscape.
Marketing represents the most strategic use of web sites for forty-nine percent of desktop channels with this tool. This is followed by communications with suppliers and customers - the most strategic use for 34 percent of those interviewed. Customer service and support ranked third in importance.
"The Internet will become a major differentiator amongst desktop channels," said Lauri Jones, director of IDC's research in Latin America. "This is based on the channel's need to develop more value add for users combined with the channel's financial limitations due to increasingly small product margins. As reinforced by this study, products are less and less distinguishable while, at the same time, users continue to demand a more effective array of services from providers. Only the Internet makes this affordable for desktop products."
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