PC manufacturers revise forecasts from growth to second year of decline

The increase of the VAT rate and the salary cuts in the public sector, combined with fewer acquisitions from the state and from private companies, could generate lower computer sales even compared with 2009, when the market contracted by almost 60%, say some of the biggest players on the market.
Acer, no. 1 on the Romanian PC market, has set as its target to preserve results at the 2009 level, says Bogdan Iftemie, sales manager of the Taiwanese company’s Romanian subsidiary. “Our target in the context of a new decline is to maintain last year’s results both in terms of value and in terms of volume.”
Ciprian Donciu, general manager of Asus Romania, no. 2 on the local PC market, is reserved in his estimates, after in January 2010 he said the market could grow by 10-15%.