PC market sees 30% surge

The Romanian market of personal computers posted 30.2% growth in the last quarter of 2003 as compared with the October-December period in 2002, considering the number of units sold. Also, the sales’ value increased 11.5%, according to ComputerWorld.ro, which quotes the latest survey compiled by IDC Romania, the local branch of research company International Data Corp.

Desktop sales surged by 27.2% considering the number of units sold, whereas the mobile PC market saw a 71.6% boost. In the fourth quarter last year, desktops accounted for 88.3% of the total value of sales, mobile PCs – 9.5%, x86 servers – 2.3%. The sales of servers went up 21.2%, as compared to 2002.

In the top of suppliers, Flamingo Computers ranks first (in terms of number of units sold) having attained 16.5% market share, followed by K-Tech (the company controlling Ultra Pro stores) – 9.9% and Hewlett-Packard – 8.3%. Comrace, with 8% of the market, and IBM, which holds 7%, fill the following two positions. But, considering the value of sales, HP ranks first in the top, with a market share of 14.8%, followed by Flamingo Computers (12.6%), IBM (11.3%), Fujitsu Siemens (8%) and Comrace (6.5%). Windows was the best-selling operating system in the last three months of 2003, as it accounted for 81.6% of the market. Linux (17%) came second. Clients in the SOHO segment (small office – home office) contributed 38.7% to the sales, whereas the small and medium-sized enterprises accounted for 37.6%. Large companies accounted for 7.6% of the total sales, the governmental sector – 6.7%, the educational sector – 5.2%, with the very large companies accounting for 3.9%, IDC analysts also say. Some 15.5 million PCs were sold worldwide in the last quarter of 2003, up 18.8% from October-December 2002, when 13 million personal computers had been sold.

In Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), HP climbed to the leading position in the top of producers. The company sold 2.866 million computers in last year’s Q4 in the EMEA area, getting 18.5% of the market (19.4% for the full year), with nine million computers sold. Dell came in second, with 1.562 million computers sold in the last three months (10.1% of the market) and 5.1 million in 2003 (11%).
iuliana.susanu@zf.ro