Gartner sees tepid APAC computer sales

MUMBAI: Computer hardware sales in the Asia-Pacific region will increase just

three percent to $32.19 billion this year, according to a forecast on Tuesday

from research firm Gartner Dataquest.

"There has been a lot of talk about an economic recovery, but that was

not evident in the first quarter of 2002," computing analyst Jennifer Wu

said in a statement.

By 2006, sales of PCs, printers, servers and workstations in the region are

projected to rise to $38.86 billion, or at a compound annual growth rate of just

4.4 per cent over the five-year period, the statement said.

China will continue to be the largest computer hardware market in the area.

Its share of total regional spending will increase to 47 per cent in 2006, from

42 per cent last year, Gartner said. It said South Korea was the second-largest

national market, accounting for 14 per cent of overall regional spending last

year, and Australia the third largest at 12.

The top three rankings were expected to remain the same through 2006, but it

did not provide figures for the size of those markets either by projected sales

or market share in the final year. By product, PC sales are expected to increase

5.4 per cent this year to $23.76 billion, accounting for 74 per cent of the

overall hardware market.

"During 2002, we expect that the developing countries of the region,

such as China, Thailand and Malaysia, will experience healthier-than-average PC

increases, with mid-double-digit unit growth," computing analyst Mathew

Boon said in the statement.

PC sales will increase to $29.77 billion in 2006, or at a compound annual

rate of 5.7 per cent. Server sales are projected to fall five percent this year

to $5 billion, and to increase at only 1.4 per cent a year to $5.65 billion in

2006.

(C) Reuters Limited.