The Asia/Pacific PC Market Slipped 6% in 2014, But IDC Expects Easing This Year

Singapore and Hong Kong, January 20, 2015 – IDC‘s preliminary results show that the Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) PC market decreased 6.3% to 101 million units in 2014, a slight improvement after falling 10.3% in 2013.  In Q4 2014, the market was flat year-on-year, reaching 25.9 million units, which was marginally higher than IDC’s initial forecasts.

“The good news is that 2015 should not contract as much as last year,” says Handoko Andi, Research Manager for Client Devices Research at IDC Asia/Pacific. “While high retail channel inventory and uncertain economic conditions will still bear down on China, upcoming commercial sector activity should help offset that somewhat. India should still have post-elections momentum and yet another large education tender. Indonesia should similarly have post-elections momentum, although high inflation and currency fluctuations are downside risks.”

Lenovo retained the top spot in 2014, bolstered by its home market of China and fueled by aggressive prices in markets like Indonesia. Dell, the only vendor in the Top 5 to grow annually, jumped to second place after going deeper into key markets like China and India.  HP fell to third place, in part because the education project in India was not as large as in the previous year.  Acer contracted yet again as the vendor struggled to turn itself around.

Table 1

Asia/Pacific (ex. Japan) PC Shipments by Vendor, 2014 (Preliminary) vs 2013

Source: IDC, Jan 2015