There’s a lot of talk living in a “post-pc” era, but recent numbers pulled by analysts IDC say otherwise, at least locally. The research firm has recorded PC shipments of just under 465,000 is the 2Q of 2011, the highest so far for the Philippines. Of that number, 190,000 units sold were desktops and 274,000 were portables. One of the biggest drivers of sales for the PC segment has been the entry level 14-inch market, which IDC notes that most major vendors managed to invigorate with a comprehensive line-up catered to our traditionally “price-sensitive” sensibilities. As a result, the PC market increasedby 10% sequentially and 30% year-on-year (YoY).
The spread of large, affordable notebooks means that demand for netbooks is waning. “Discerning home users are now willing tospend on larger form factors, which provide more bang for the buck”, says Ng Juan Jin, Market Analyst for Personal Systems Research at IDC ASEAN. The IDC report says that even when netbook prices has hit an all time low, people are still buying larger form factors, mainly because the the specs and functionality of mininotebooks have stagnated. 13-inch and above notebooks have enjoyed a growth of 35% quarter-over-quarter increase while mininotebooks declined 8%. Jin adds, “With the rise of the media –tablets and smartphones, competition in the secondary IT device is heating up and this is also affecting the demand of mininotebooks.”