APAC PC Market Sees 3% Growth in 1Q12: IDC

IDC's preliminary results show that the Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) PC market declined 2 percent sequentially but grew 3 percent year-on-year in 2012 Q1 to reach 29.4 million units, which was generally in line with IDC's forecasted growth rate.

HDD supplies had some impact, but the situation improved towards the end of the quarter to help keep shipments up, particularly in the ASEAN region, which witnessed strong vendor-driven activity to boost the channels.

"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, IDC. "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 ultraslim notebooks that can push the market ahead in 2012."

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Seasonal slowdown in China expectedly pulled Lenovo down this quarter, but the vendor did well in the rest of the region, particularly in India as shipments for a large education notebook project there helped push the vendor up locally. HP managed to regain some lost momentum in China for now, while Dell dropped back in many countries after a strong Q4. ASUS meanwhile, remained very aggressive in China and the ASEAN region.