China becomes world’s biggest PC market

by Scott Bicheno on 24 August 2011, 09:56

Tags: IDC, Hewlett Packard (NYSE:HPQ)

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HP's challenge in a nutshell

Market researcher IDC has unveiled its final results for the global PC market in Q2, and they reveal a shift on the centre of gravity of the global PC market.

For what we presume to be the first time, China accounted for more PC shipments than the US in the last quarter - representing 22 percent of the global PC market, compared to the US's 21 percent. Due to greater relative volumes in the US over the holiday period, IDC reckons the US will still hang onto the top spot for the 2011 calendar year, but will be overtaken next year.

"There are of course still risks ahead for China, including not just inflation but also the impact of economic conditions in the U.S. and Europe," said Kitty Fok, VP for Greater China research at IDC. "But in the meantime, the Chinese government's 12th Five-Year Plan should help large enterprises in various infrastructure verticals to continue to move along, not to mention of course the ongoing efforts to increase consumer penetration in lower-tier cities."

"China's lead in the PC market is a huge shift that reflects the rising fortunes of emerging markets as well as the relative stagnation of more mature regions." said Loren Loverde, VP of the worldwide PC tracker. "While the immediate economic circumstances in the US and other markets had a significant impact on the timing of China's move to the lead, they have not changed the trend, but accelerated it."

 

Worldwide PC Market Share by Country, Q2 2011 (Historical) and Calendar Year 2011 and 2012 (Forecast)

(Market Share based on Unit Shipments)

Country

2011 Q2
Market Share

CY2011
Market Share

CY2012
Market Share

PRC

22.0%

20.3%

21.8%

USA

21.0%

20.6%

19.6%

Others

57.1%

59.1%

58.5%

Total

100.0%

100.0%

100.0%

Source:  IDC Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker, August 23, 2011

 

IDC has also published its latest global server figures, and they reveal a continuation of the trend in IBM's favour we saw last quarter. IBM is now the leader, by revenue, something CEO Leo Apotheker was no doubt aware of when he announced HP would be focusing on the business market from now on.

"Server market growth accelerated in 2Q11 and experienced its highest reported second quarter revenue in three years with all geographies contributing to the positive year-over-year growth. This was the fifth consecutive quarter with double-digit year-over-year revenue growth as the market recovery continued to extend from x86 servers to midrange Unix to high-end mainframe class systems," said Matt Eastwood, VP of enterprise platforms at IDC.

"While 2Q11 was an exceptionally strong quarter, attention has already turned to the market outlook for the second half of the year. IDC believes that weakening macroeconomic conditions around the world will serve to moderate demand for new servers later this year."

IBM is also haunting HP in the PC market, in the form of Lenovo, which bought IGM's PC division back in 2004. The shift of the global PC market towards China greatly benefits Lenovo, which has a massive advantage over other PC vendors in China. This, too, probably contributed to the HP strategic rethink.

 

Top 5 Corporate Family, Worldwide Server Systems Factory Revenue, Second Quarter of 2011

(Revenues are in Millions)

Vendor

2Q11

2Q11 Market

2Q10

2Q10

2Q11/2Q10

 


Revenue

Share

Revenue

Market

Revenue

 


 


 


 


Share

Growth

1. IBM

$4,008

30.5%

$3,219

28.9%

24.5%

1. HP

$3,922

29.8%

$3,589

32.2%

9.3%

3. Dell

$1,814

13.8%

$1,725

15.5%

5.1%

4. Oracle

$941

7.2%

$903

8.1%

4.2%

4. Fujitsu

$849

6.5%

$363

3.3%

133.6%

    Others

$1,621

12.3%

$1,355

12.1%

19.7%

All Vendors

$13,156

100.0%

$11,154

100.0%

17.9%

IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker, August 2011

 


 


 



HEXUS Forums :: 6 Comments

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Is it more a case of US PC sales decline, China sales expand ?
Entirely unsurprising. The Chinese economy is booming while we're busting. China is an emerging market while ours is completely saturated.

Also, when did HP ever not focus on the business market? It's not as if they've ever been splashing big on consumer goods. Even their little dabble with Palm didn't last any appreciable length of time.
aidanjt
Entirely unsurprising. The Chinese economy is booming while we're busting. China is an emerging market while ours is completely saturated.

Also, when did HP ever not focus on the business market? It's not as if they've ever been splashing big on consumer goods. Even their little dabble with Palm didn't last any appreciable length of time.

They're the world's number one PC vendor - at least half, and probably more like two thirds, of that is consumer.
Just how many of those pc's in china are used for farming gold in WOW? :)
balls to it im learning Mandarin and moving to china…