PC sales slow in Asia as tablet sales climb: IDC

"While this quarter's growth was abnormally low, it was good to see that the industry was generally able to work around supply constraints to keep the market moving," said Bryan Ma, associate vice-president of Asia-Pacific Client Devices Research at IDC.

 

Another possible reason for low PC growth is the increasing popularity of tablets, with IDC expecting tablet sales in Asia-Pacific to hit 21 million units this year. 

 

Ma, however, isn't ready to sound the death knell on PCs just yet. "Looking ahead, there are still some risks around the economy and channel inventory, but there are also a number of public sector projects as well as new platforms like Windows 8 and ultra-slim notebooks (ultrabooks) that can push the market ahead in 2012," he said. 

 

In the region, Lenovo continues to lead in market share (21 per cent) despite a slowdown in its home-market, China. However the vendor performed well in India, where shipments for a large education notebook project helped boost shipments.

 

Acer too held its second-place position in the region and increased its market share (on the back of Lenovo's decline) from 11.7 per cent in Q42011 to 12 per cent in 1Q2012. 

 

HP succeeded in nudging ahead of Dell by a percentage point, increasing its market share to 9.1 per cent versus Dell's 9 per cent, thanks to growth in China. Dell, meanwhile, has dropped back in many countries after a strong performance in the previous quarter. 

 

Despite trailing in market share (8.2 per cent), Asus has remained 'aggressive' in China and ASEAN and grew its share substantially from 6.2 per cent in the previous quarter.