IDC: Smooth Sailing for Philippines PC Market; Troubled Waters in Indonesia

The latest quarterly report from global market intelligence firm IDC shows that the second quarter of 2012 isn’t the happiest one for the PC market in both the Philippines and particularly Indonesia. The PC market in the Philippines saw a little growth of only 1.5 percent (total shipments of 551,000 units); but the country didn’t record any decline on the previous quarter.

The report showed that the growth in the Philippines’ market can be mainly attributed to the smaller PC vendors’ growth in the country. They were able to take advantage of in-demand mini notebooks not yet fully fulfilled by the top two vendors, Acer and Samsung. The trend is predicted to continue with the top two vendors facing stiff competition for the rest of the year.

What to expect in the third quarter? The launch of Windows 8 soon will affect the Philippines market quite significantly. Vendors would want to hold their old stock because of that. But modest growth could still be recorded, IDC reckons, as a result of projected government and enterprise spending.

In Indonesia

The same can’t be said for Indonesia as the country suffered a decline of 6.5 percent (total shipments of 1,300,000 units), as there was a fall in demand in the market, as much as 22 percent. IT project delays by the government in the education sector and the volatile currency also did not help much during Q2. Deddie Sionader, the client devices market analyst at IDC Indonesia, said that consumers’ attention was also distracted by the mobile phone and tablet markets.

Acer and Asus are still the number one and two PC vendors in Indonesia. HP was able to take the third position from Toshiba, which now drops to fourth place.