The combined New Zealand desktop and notebook market has reached its highest ever level, according to IDC New Zealand. 142,183 units were shipped in the third quarter of 2005, a 20% increase compared to the same period last year.
The amount of shipped consumer notebooks outnumbered shipped consumer desktops within the New Zealand market for the first time during Q3.
The third quarter of the year is typically one of the quieter, but the enormous growth in the notebook area changed that trend this year, says Liam Gunson, senior hardware analyst at IDC. Desktop shipments followed the traditional seasonal decline and dropped by 9%, whereas the notebook market kept going strong and increased unit shipments by 23%.
“While both commercial and consumer segments exhibited strong growth, it is the consumer space, driven by a strong retail market, that has proven to be the most significant growth area in recent quarters,” says Gunson.
Gunson says notebook shipments are expected to keep pushing ahead of desktops.
“The notebook market is very price-aggressive. Times are tough for local PC assemblers because it is impossible for them to build notebooks at the same low cost as the market leaders,” he says. “Local assemblers tend to aim for the mid to high level area of the market.”
Vendor rankings did not change in Q3. Hewlett-Packard still dominates both the desktop and notebook market. Dell holds the second position in the combined market, mainly because of strong desktop sales. Acer holds the third spot thanks to the significant notebook sales that saw it climb to second position in the portable market in Q2. The company still holds this spot in Q3.