Aggressive Pricing and Effective Promotions Boosted PC Sales in the Spanish Market in 2Q03, says IDC
LONDON, July 25, 2003 ? According to IDC, PC shipments grew by 31.5% in Spain in the second quarter of the year thanks to aggressive pricing and effective marketing actions implemented by vendors. Moderate growth in desktop sales, at 15.1%, highly contrasted with what is continuing to be a booming notebook market, which grew by 75.2%, driven primarily by healthy consumer demand. This is the fourth quarter sequentially that the Spanish market has beaten its annual growth rate for PC sales.
With no signs of major improvement in the economy in sight, growth in the PC market is mostly explained by low-cost budget purchases, made typically by consumers and small and medium businesses. High levels of activity were recorded in both the retail and dealer distribution channels. After a busy Christmas period and a strong first quarter, the consumer market continued to drive overall market growth. HP's "Crazy Days" promotions, as well as other major vendors' special PC offers to the SMB market, successfully stimulated demand within this business space.
Notebook prices have suffered the sharpest cuts, narrowing the gap with desktops. The battle between vendors to gain market share in rather difficult times has shown once more the sensitivity of both consumer and SMB demand to pricing. Demand for low-entry products continues to increase from both consumers and SMBs as portability, rather than mobility at a higher price, is the first choice for most buyers.
Desktop demand was healthy, driven by both first-time purchases and renewals across all market segments. Regional governments generated significant volume shipments to vendors offering the most competitive bid, which mostly fell to local vendors. The enterprise segment remains quiet, only giving the green light to essential renewals. Despite an accelerated shift for mobile computing, SMBs continued to drive commercial desktop growth, showing a preference for competitively priced PC bundles. The desktop market continued to consolidate among the top vendors, as their pricing and branding campaigns became major weapons in attracting the full spectrum of PC users.
"The outlook for the Spanish PC market continues to be encouraging, despite a gradual decline in consumer sales at the end of the second quarter," said Angela Salmeron, senior research analyst for IDC?s European Personal Computing group. "The typically quiet summer season will be followed by busy back-to-school sales in the second half of the third quarter, when we expect vendors to resume their marketing tactics in order to stimulate consumer demand. As the pressure continues, most vendors question the sustainability of this market strategy, and the limits of shipment growth at the expense of declining margin profits," Salmeron added.
Vendor Performance Highlights
HP retained clear leadership in the Spanish PC market, holding a fourth share, and recording over 65% year-on-year growth. A major deal with the retailer Carrefour and the launch of the "Crazy Days" promotional campaign, aimed at the SMB market, resulted in HP's notebook shipments experiencing triple-digit growth. In the server market, the vendor held nearly half the market share.
Dell maintained its second position in the overall PC market. Its strong positioning in the commercial space, and particularly in the midsize business segment, contributed to robust double-digit shipment growth in all form factors. The direct vendor continues to increase its consumer sales thanks to aggressive pricing and marketing campaigns.
Acer gained the third position in the overall PC market thanks to healthy consumer and SMB sales. Its close relationships with distributors, its wide portfolio, and its attractive value proposition helped the vendor record strong triple-digit growth and gain second position in the notebook space.
Airis dropped to fourth position as the vendor failed to sustain the high volume of desktop shipments recorded last quarter. Airis recorded a soft double-digit increase in shipments in both desktop and notebook products. The vendor gained third position in the notebook space, thanks to its channel coverage and healthy consumer demand.
IBM retained the fifth position in the Spanish PC market and managed to record strong double-digit growth in both notebook and server shipments. The vendor benefited from some deals with large accounts and continued to gain share in the SMB market thanks to its Top Seller program.
Top 10 Vendor PC Unit Shipments and Shares in Spain (Preliminary), Second Quarter, 2003 (000)
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IDC's EMEA Quarterly PC Tracker gathers PC market data in 35 countries by vendor, form factor, brand, processor brand and speed, sales channel and user segment. The research includes historical and forecast trend analysis as well as price band and installed base data.
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Source: IDC
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