VietNamNet Bridge – Computer retailers are suffering from a high volume of unsold products due to the economic woes and the strong competition from tablets and smartphones despite the positive market growth achieved in the previous quarter.

Young customers in this file photo take a close look at laptops at a computer show in HCM City.

In last year’s fourth quarter, the local computer market recorded a growth of 20.5% over the preceding quarter and 3.4% year-on-year. The total sales volume was 638,000 units, says a survey on the Asia-Pacific computer market conducted by the market research firm IDC.

The unsold volume of consumer computers, including desktop and laptop computers for personal use, was still considerable although suppliers tried their best to boost sales. Still, this is just an overview as there have been no specific data on computer inventory in the fourth quarter.

Phan Thi Hoang Yen, market analyst at IDC Vietnam, said computer suppliers and retailers would continue to grapple with high inventory as the purchasing power remains weak.

Another headache for the computer market is the fierce competition from tablets and smartphones. Although ultra-slim computers are sold with Windows 8 licenses at competitive prices, consumers still prefer tablets and smartphones.

Therefore, prices of computers, especially the ultra-slim ones, must be reduced further to compete with the attractive prices of tablets and smartphones, said Yen.

Daniel Pang, ASEAN research manager at IDC Asia-Pacific client devices research team, said most small and medium-sized enterprises, and some large ones, were facing financial distress, which would affect their spending on information technology this year.

In a report on the survey released on Wednesday, IDC names the leading computer producers in the local market in last year’s fourth quarter.

ASUS remained on the top position with a market share of 17.8%, followed by Dell with 15% and Acer with 10.2%.

HP fell one spot to rank fourth, holding a 9.1% market share. Although HP still obtained good results in the commercial segment, it faced a cut-throat competition from other multinationals in the consumer segment.

Lenovo remained on the fifth place with a 6.2% market share as it had launched several cheap computer lines into the market, meeting the current demand of consumers.

Source: SGT