Driven by HP success, New Zealand PC market set to have best year in history

In the third quarter of 2014, the New Zealand PC market shipments came in at 187,000 units, according to IDC’s Asia/Pacific Quarterly tracker.

This resulted in a year over year growth of 12.9%, which was more than IDC’s forecast by 3.8%.

The top five New Zealand PC vendors are Dell, Toshiba, Apple and Acer Group, but HP remained the market leader by a significant amount.

HP secured 41% of the PC market share in Q314, growing its market share quarter on quarter - in Q214, HP’s market share was 38% and in Q114 it was at 37%. In the third quarter of 2014, HP shipped 76,915 units and at the same time last year, the company shipped 64,043 units. From 2013 to 2014 HP experienced growth of 20%.

Acer Group was behind HP with 17% market share, followed by Apple with 12%, Toshiba with 8% and Dell with 7%.

Arunachalam Muthiah, IDC, market analyst, says, "Several market drivers that played a role in the second quarter remained applicable in 3Q and contributed to the above results.”

“Consumer demand remained strong and was primarily driven by falling price of notebooks. A new line of Apple notebooks and end-user price promotions also fuelled expansion in the consumer segment,” he says.

“Although XP migration refreshes have slowed down, chromebooks and ultrasmall form factor desktops secured substantial deals that stimulated growth in commercial space,” says Muthiah.

IDC says if the market continues to sustain the same upward trend in the fourth quarter and meets forecast expectations, this year will be the best for New Zealand’s PC market to date.

“Given the current commercial and consumer sentiment, the changes for this scenario to happen are highly likely,” says IDC.