A significant portion of this growth came in the fourth quarter of 2002, when the Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) PC market grew to 6.8 million units, four percent up on the third quarter and 15 percent over the same period in 2001.
Australia, along with China and India, are reported as being the main drivers of the growth, although the only country that saw a year-on-year decline in PC sales was South Korea. Australia's market benefited from education and consumer purchases.
"Falling component prices, new technology introductions, and an expected increase in IT spending should help to continue this gradual growth in the upcoming quarters, although an uncertain sense of global security could also mute such expectations," said Bryan Ma, Personal Systems Research Manager, IDC Asia/Pacific.
IDC expects the region to continue to grow, and predicts growth of 16 percent for 2003 over 2002, with all countries in the region reporting positive growth.
IDC described the demand for recently launched Tablet PC as "surprisingly strong", especially amongst the early-adopter consumers in Australia and Singapore. The report also noted some vendors began shipping Linux-based systems to countries such as India and New Zealand to reach customers with a low price point.
