PC Sales Up For Grabs In The Global Market

PC Sales Up For Grabs In The Global Market: Nielsen//Netratings

APAC leads trend towards multiple PCs in the home

Auckland – August 28, 2001 – Despite the US PC market levelling off, the outlook for the global consumer PC market is still strong with several well-developed markets showing low home PC penetration rates, the latest Nielsen//NetRatings quarterly Global Internet Trends (GNETT) report revealed today.

The report (Q2, 2001) also showed that in addition to having the highest levels of home PC penetration in the world, households that already have PC’s in the key Asia Pacific markets -- Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan – are showing an increasing propensity to acquire more.

“Our latest research shows that a number of well developed European markets have relatively low levels of PC penetration in the home – in Germany, 48% of households have home PCs, compared to 46% in the UK, 41% in Italy and 34% in France,” said Brian Milnes, Managing Director Pacific, Nielsen//NetRatings.

“With relatively large population bases and high disposable incomes, these markets present a great opportunity for PC manufacturers in the consumer market. Through targeted marketing efforts they should be able to lift the penetration rates of these countries up to at least 50%, generating about 18 million sales.

“APAC markets, on the other hand, already show high home PC penetration – these markets account for six out of the top 10 countries in the world in terms of the penetration rate of PCs in the home. South Korea, Australia and Singapore, for example, have PCs in 64-68% of households, while Taiwan, Hong Kong and New Zealand have between 58-59% penetration.

“The key opportunity in this region is the trend towards households owning more than one PC in the home. In Australia, over one in four households with PCs (nearly 1.2 million homes) actually own more than one machine – the proportion is the same in Taiwan, while in Hong Kong, New Zealand and Singapore, 22% of households have multiple PCs at home.

“It is interesting that while South Korea has one of the world’s highest penetration rates of home PCs, only 11% of those households have a second PC. If consumer demand could reach the levels being attained in the lead multiple home PC markets, this would represent an additional opportunity for two million PC sales just in the home market in South Korea. Many of the northern European countries and Israel also represent great opportunities for the sale of second PCs to consumers.

“Global PC manufacturers face considerable challenges relating to product differentiation through marketing, distribution channels and the equity of their brands in each market,” he said. “But at the other end of that challenge is the opportunity to increase sales by millions of units at a time when the US PC market is levelling off.”

Further GNETT results showed that 459 million people now have Internet access worldwide. The US and Canada accounted for 40% of the world’s Internet population, down slightly from 41% in Q1. Europe/the Middle East/Africa remained static with 27% of the world’s Internet population. Asia/Pacific was the only region to show an increased share of the world Net population with 22%, up from 20% in Q1, followed by Latin America, also static at 4%.

About GNETT
The Nielsen//NetRatings Global Internet Trends (GNETT) report measures the Internet access and penetration trends in 30 countries in North America, Europe/the Middle East/Africa, Asia/Pacific and Latin America. With the addition of Argentina, India and South Africa and Israel this quarter, Nielsen//NetRatings now measures 93% of the estimated global home-based Internet access.

GNETT is a quarterly subscription service, reporting key Internet statistics and attitudes drawn from more than 40,000 surveys. The latest findings are the results of surveys conducted between April and June 2001 using consistent research methodology. The Q2 reports cover: Austria, Belgium/Luxembourg, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, Australia, Hong Kong, India, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico as well as select measures for the US, Canada, and Japan.

About Nielsen//NetRatings
Through strategic partnerships between NetRatings (NASDAQ: NTRT), Nielsen Media Research and ACNielsen, the Nielsen//NetRatings Internet audience measurement service collects real-time data from more than 225,000 individuals with access to the Internet in 28 countries around the world. Nielsen//NetRatings uses unique technology capable of measuring both Internet use and advertising to provide the most timely, accurate and comprehensive Internet usage data and advertising information in the global marketplace. For more information, please visit www.nielsen-netratings.com.

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