GartnerGroup's Dataquest Reports Solid Growth for Direct Sales in
Asia/Pacific PC Market; Reseller PC Volume Drops to 62 Percent of
Market in First Half of 1998 - BW, 08:13 a.m. Sep 28, 1998 Eastern
HONG KONG--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 28, 1998--While the
Asia/Pacific personal computer market has experienced slow growth this
year, PC shipments through direct sales channels during the first half of
1998 in Asia/Pacific -- outside of Japan -- increased 15 percent over the
same period last year, according to Dataquest, a unit of Gartner Group,
Inc. (NYSE: IT). Total PC shipments for the region grew just 3 percent
over the first half of 1997.
From January through June of this year, more than 1.6 million PCs were
ordered in Asia/Pacific through a combination of vendor salesforces,
vendor retail operations, and direct fax, telephone and Internet facilities.
Asia/Pacific PC shipments sourced through resellers declined by more
than 3 percent from the first half of 1997 for a total of nearly 2.7 million
units in the first half of 1998.
While much of the Asia/Pacific market has slipped further into a
recession, the PC market in China has posted healthy growth because of
the popularity of unbranded white boxes. White box PCs accounted for
27 percent of all first half 1998 shipments in Asia/Pacific and 60 percent
of all units ordered directly by end users in this period. PC shipments in
the China market alone (excluding Hong Kong) exceeded 1.4 million
units in the first half of 1998, accounting for one-third of the region's
total units. More than 600,000 PCs were ordered through direct means in
China during the first half of the year.
"Continued growth in the volume of direct-channel PCs in Asia/Pacific is
a reflection of massive white box consumption, and the impact of large
markets like China that are still growing this year," said Lane Leskela,
senior industry analyst for Dataquest's Asia/Pacific PC and Printer
Distribution Channels program.
Margin pressure from local brands, and white boxes configured by PC
stores and dealers from standardized, low-cost components is affecting
the competitiveness of some traditional brands. The region's PC
component volume remains high in the wake of tremendous price erosion
from the original manufacturers. "Asia/Pacific is already seeing the
sub-U.S.$500 PC creep in to the market, courtesy of the white box
assemblers," said Leskela. "This process will continue to erode margins
and PC market share for international brand resellers who will be forced
to focus on higher-margin systems and value-added services."
Channel consolidation is an inevitable trend in Asia/Pacific as buying
power continues to diminish and the region's PC market grows less
attractive to official resellers. "With white box and entry-level PC prices
eroding traditional margins, the low-cost/high-availability direct order
model is reinforced in the Asia/Pacific market this year," said Leskela.
"Dataquest expects PCs ordered through direct means to rise to as much
as 40 percent of the region's shipments by the end of 1998."
More information is available by subscribing to Dataquest's PC and
Printer Distribution Channels Asia/Pacific program. This program
provides detailed PC and printer channels data and trend analysis from
primary research in each of the ten largest Asia/Pacific IT markets.
Additional information on this program is available on Dataquest's Web
site at dataquest.com.
To subscribe to this program, please call 800/419-DATA or
408/468-8009. More information about Dataquest's programs,
descriptions of recent research reports, and full text of press releases can
be found on the Internet at dataquest.com.
Dataquest maintains direct local operations in Japan and seven countries
in the Asia/Pacific region -- Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea,
Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand -- and has research affiliates in China,
India, and New Zealand.
GartnerGroup's Dataquest is the recognized leader in providing the
high-technology and financial communities with market intelligence for
the semiconductor, computer systems and peripherals, communications,
document management, software, and services sectors of the global
information technology industry.
As the world's leading authority on IT, GartnerGroup provides clients
with a wide range of products and services in the areas of IT advisory
services, measurement, research, decision support, analysis, and
consulting. Founded in 1979, with headquarters in Stamford, Conn.,
GartnerGroup is at the center of a global community with more than
11,000 client organizations served by analysts in 80 locations
worldwide. Additional information about the company is available on the
Internet at gartner.com.
Copyright 1998, Business Wire
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