Portables Market Boosted by Education Wins

Portables Market Boosted by Education Wins, reports IDC

Preliminary Q1 2003 New Zealand PC figures have been released by IDC. The preliminary results show that the PC market in New Zealand reached 94,826 units in Q1 2003. This is a 1.7% decline from Q4 2002 and a 10.1% increase from the same quarter the year before.

"Q1 is often inhibited by seasonal factors – however year-on-year, the Q1 2003 PC market performed well despite weak consumer spending. Year-on-year growth was driven mainly by business and education wins, education spending caused particularly strong year-on-year growth in the portables market." said Sonja Olsson, Senior Analyst, Hardware Research.

Q1 Market and Vendor Highlights

HP maintained it's position as market leader for the total PC market, with a 31.3% units market share. HP remained in the top spot for both the desktop and Intel server markets in Q1, however, Toshiba took first place in the portables market, following its significant win to the Ministry of Education, supplying portables as part of the Ministry's 'Laptops for Secondary School Teachers Scheme'. Toshiba won the largest part of the tender, with HP and Apple fulfilling the remainder. The 'Laptops for Secondary Teachers Scheme' will see teachers receive notebooks, leased from either The Laptop Company (Toshiba), Axon Computertime (HP) or Renaissance (Apple).

"In Q1 2003, Toshiba was propelled to the number two position in the total PC market by the win to the Ministry of Education, coupled with a successful quarter with other education business also," commented Sonja Olsson.

Third and fourth positions were held by IBM and Dell respectively, with Apple rounding out the top five.

The launch of Intel's new Centrino architecture in Q1 2003 has helped to raise the profile of mobility within the New Zealand workforce. IDC expects that companies and individuals will increasingly take advantage of price, performance, and longer battery life brought by such new processor architectures, particularly as wireless uptake grows.

Outlook

Over the next twelve months activity will be stimulated by the first post-Y2K refresh cycle in the business market. However, the economy and political environment will continue to influence IT hardware purchasing. "In the current environment, CIOs are becoming increasingly more accountable for IT hardware procurement, with budgets spent sparingly on justifiable purchases only" said Sonja Olsson. World events following the war in Iraq, coupled with SARS and the strengthening New Zealand dollar may affect spending in the short term, due to uncertainty about the future.

About IDC:

IDC is the foremost global market intelligence and advisory firm helping clients gain insight into technology and eBusiness trends to develop sound business strategies. Using a combination of rigorous primary research, in-depth analysis, and client interaction, IDC forecasts local and worldwide markets and trends to deliver dependable service and client advice. More than 700 analysts in 43 countries provide global research with local content. IDC's customers comprise the world's leading IT suppliers, IT organisations, eBusiness companies and the financial community. Additional information can be found at http://www.idcresearch.co.nz

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