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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rusty Johnson who wrote (34393)	2/24/2000 9:57:00 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 70976

Asian PC Market Surges to Top 14 Million Units in 1999, IDC Says February 24, 2000 (HONG KONG) -- Preliminary results of an IDC Asia/Pacific survey show the Asia Pacific personal computer market, excluding Japan, topped 14.1 million units in 1999, up 35.1 percent over 1998. The 1999 PC shipment total was the highest annual figure ever recorded, and it marked a complete rebound from the previous two years, during which the economic crisis held back PC expansion. According to IDC, the greatest market accelerator in 1999 was Asia's economic recovery. With economic improvement came lower interest rates, greater consumer and business confidence, strengthening regional currencies, surging stock markets and heightened commercial spending on PC equipment. Furthermore, Internet proliferation, price erosion and low PC penetration contributed to the market's momentum throughout the year, IDC noted. While there was a Y2K sales disruption in the large and medium business sectors of developed markets in the fourth quarter, strong buying from consumers and small businesses offset the impact. Consequently, shipments in the fourth quarter of the year were up 9.1 percent over the third quarter of 1999 and 38.6 percent annually. "After two very tumultuous years, the Asian PC market returned to the fast track in 1999," said Kitty Fok, research manager at IDC Asia/Pacific. "Looking forward, conditions such as low PC penetration, particularly in vast untapped markets like China and India, falling prices, growing awareness and the Internet will enable Asia to regain its position as the hottest PC market in the world." IBM Corp. reclaimed the market's top spot in 1999 as its market share increased from 8.1 percent to 8.4 percent. Compaq Computer Corp. was bumped to the second place rank in the region with market share of 7.3 percent for the year. China's Legend Computer's volumes surged over 79 percent in 1999, which enabled the Chinese vendor to claim the third place rank and 7.1 percent market share. Likewise, fourth ranked Samsung's shipments rode the wave of Korea's economic recovery in 1999 as volumes increased more than 78 percent. Both Legend and Samsung groups depended almost exclusively on their domestic markets - China and Korea, respectively - to attain their regional standings in 1999. In contrast to 1998, every country market generated positive annual growth in 1999. The annual growth rates ranged from a low of 12.1 percent in Vietnam to a high of over 273.1 percent in Indonesia. Growth in markets such as Indonesia, Korea and Thailand was high since these markets experienced the worst conditions during the regional economic crisis. Among the region's largest markets China, Korea and Australia, Korea contributed the most to regional growth with an annual shipment increase of 79.2 percent. As a result, Korea regained its position as the region's second largest market. PC growth in China was more moderate in 1999 with a 25.6 percent annual gain. However, with over 34.9 percent share of regional demand, China's growth bolstered the regional rebound. (Eleanor Yeung, Hong Kong Editor, Asia BizTech/Nikkei Electronics Asia)