Australian PC market returns to growth in Q3

The Australian PC market returned to growth in the third quarter after a sluggish first half of the year, partly as a result of Dick Smith’s bankruptcy and exit from the market, IDC estimates.

Total shipments grew to 992,000 during the third quarter, a year-on-year increase of 3.5%. But most of the growth was driven by the commercial segment, which rose 6% year-on-year, compared to an anaemic 1% growth for the consumer segment.

Within the commercial segment, the market witnessed significant growth in the education, government and corporate sectors. But spending by SMEs continued to decline.

While the conventional notebook and PC market grew by 3.2% year-on-year, the convertible (2-in-1) form factor swelled 91% year-on-year.

HP remained the market leader with a 28.1% share of the total market — up around 4.8% from the previous year. This was followed by Lenovo with 18.8% and Dell with 15.5%.

Fourth-ranked Apple lost around 5.3% market share to bring its total to 12.8%, while Acer’s market share grew 1.5% to 10.8% due to a strong performance in the consumer segment.

“Seasonal impact seemed to have been minimal, as the market bounced back after a sluggish start in the first half of the year due to Dick Smith and Toshiba exiting from the market,” IDC Australia Client Devices Analyst Sagar Raghavendra said.

“Harvey Norman’s Modern PC program also seems to have contributed to this growth in the consumer segment.”

Image courtesy of Intel Free Press under CC