The portables market, which includes notebooks and mini-notebooks, grew 31.9% sequentially in 4Q11 and 42.5% YoY. Favorable exchange rates, vendors' eagerness to stock-up before the Chinese New Year period and fears over hard disk drive (HDD) supply shortages resulted in a surge of notebook shipments this quarter.
Desktop shipments declined by 5% sequentially in 4Q11 and 15% YoY, primarily due to continued weak demand and price drops in portables which took market share away from desktops. The commercial segment's lackluster performance was helped by a few scattered educational projects. Government spending was expectedly minimal, as a result of the passing of Resolution 11, which called for public sector budget cuts.
"On the commercial front, Vietnam's PC market will likely experience low growth this year in light of cuts in public sector spending coupled with the weak purchasing power of enterprises. The consumer market is also likely to suffer as a result of extremely high inventory levels that have been carried over into the New Year, lower demand for mini-books and a shift in focus by vendors to media tablets," says Yen Phan, Market Analyst for Client Devices Research at IDC Vietnam.
TOP Five PC Vendors in 4Q 2011
Dell continued its growth momentum, captured 21% of the market in 4Q11 and beat the other vendors to claim the top spot.
Acer occupied second position with 13% market share. Its aggressive pricing strategies helped the vendor regain market share this quarter.
Asus maintained its recent good performance and held on to 10% of the market share. Besides expanding its channel presence and building a strong after-sales service infrastructure, Asus also embarked on aggressive promotions and price-cuts to boost sales.
HP took the fourth position with 9% market share. HP continued to lead in the desktop category, and continued to push their commercial notebook range into the retail sector to attract SMBs.
Lenovo took fifth position with 6% market share. The vendor continued to build on its brand image, while cooperating closely with retailers to launch promotional campaigns.