Vietnam’s pc market saw growth in 3q 2011 as competition heats up between notebook vendors, says idc

Driven by the continued growth of notebooks and a slight recovery in demand for desktops, the PC market in Vietnam experienced 13.1 percent sequential growth and 16.1 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth in 3Q.
According to IDC’s Asia/Pacific Quarterly PC Tracker, total PC shipments reached 551,311 units this quarter.

Although weak consumer demand and high vendor inventory levels have been a common trend throughout 2011, 3Q saw an increase in shipments as it was the back-toschool season. Some public sector projects also helped to drive up shipments in the commercial space, though the government’s passing of Resolution 11 had an adverse effect on spending sentiments by large enterprises, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

However, IDC expects growth to be curtailed in 4Q 2011, as the PC market is facing difficulties arising from the global shortage of hard disk drives (HDDs). As such, there will be a slight reduction from previous forecast and IDC expects a total of 2 million PC units to be shipped this year.

“Considering the impact of the HDD supply problem caused by the flood in Thailand, we are not optimistic about our predictions,” said Yen Phan, Market Analyst for Client Devices at IDC Vietnam. “The impact will extend to 1Q 2012 and we can also expect higher prices for PCs during the recovery period.”

On the whole, desktops had a good quarter with a growth of 34.4 percent, but shipments were down 17.6 percent year-on-year (YoY) primarily due to continued weak demand and aggressive price competition in the notebook market.

Notebook shipments only increased slightly this quarter but it’s year-on-year (YoY) performance was significant at 68.2 percent, thanks mainly to large shipments from Asus, Dell, and Lenovo. The notebook market is still seeing aggressive price competition between vendors and this is expected to continue for the remainder of the year.

“At the moment, Notebook growth rates are driven by international vendors such Dell, Acer, Asus. However, the fear of rising unfavourable exchange rates and the HDD shortage issue will impact PC shipments for the next few quarters. However, we should start seeing growth beginning 2Q 2012 and beyond with refreshing PC offerings such as ultrabooks stimulating the market,” continued Yen.

TOP 5 PC Vendors in 3Q 2011

Dell took the top position, capturing 14.21 percent market share, due to large shipments of notebooks along with their channel expansions in 2011. With channel expansions and aggressive pricing strategies, Asus enjoyed huge growth in their notebook division and moved into second position with 11.79 percent market share.

HP retained third position with 11.45 percent market share. They continued to perform in the desktop space. In this quarter, they pushed out their Probook and Elitebook range to retailers, which helped the vendor gain market share in the notebook business.

Acer occupied fourth position with 10.00 percent market share. They made efforts to clear stocks from the last quarter and launched aggressive promotions to take advantage of the back-to-school season.

Lenovo took fifth position with 6.68 percent market share. Similar to the other vendors, they expanded their channel presence and embarked on various marketing activities to rebuild their brand image in Vietnam.

IEWY