Two steps forward, one step back
Eszter Morvay is a senior research analyst for IDC's EMEA PC research group. As such, it’s her job to observe trends in the PC market and extrapolate them to form projections.
IDC recently released its figures on the UK PC market in 2007 and revealed that overall PC shipments grew by a healthy 12.6 percent year on year, to 11.2 million units, fuelled by growth in the notebook market of 36 percent. This more than compensated for a decline in desktop volumes of 7.3 percent.
These figures have led IDC to forecast that “The U.K. PC market is expected to grow by 10.5 percent in 2008, reaching more than 12 million units, as unrelenting demand for mobility will boost notebook shipment levels by over 20 percent, while desktop volumes are set to experience a further decline of almost 3 percent.”
Who makes money out of a £300 laptop?
That’s all great, but to repeat my oft-asked but yet to be answered question: who makes money out of a £300 laptop? To try to shed some light on this and the UK market in general I speak to Morvay (pictured, right - Hungarian name, in case you were wondering) and start by asking if she could give me value figures to go with the published volume ones.
“I can only talk in US dollars, but in 2008 we expect a 7.3 percent decline in ASP [average selling price] for desktops and a ten per cent decline in notebook ASP,” said Morvay. “This will result in a ten percent drop in the value of the desktop market and a nine percent increase in the value of the notebook market.”
So we’re selling loads of notebooks but charging less for them (funny how often that’s the case), while even charging less for desktops can’t arrest the downward trend in numbers sold. I ask if this is sector specific.
“The consumer sector faces the most price pressure because retail is so competitive, especially in the UK,” says Morvay. “But there is still a lot of price pressure in the SMB and corporate sectors due to strong competition among the big players.”