According to analyst firm IDC, the 612,000 PCs were sold in Australia in the first quarter of 2003, an increase of 5.8 percent from the fourth quarter 2002 and an increase of 20.1 percent on the first quarter of 2002. "The market bucked seasonal trends and exceeded market expectations for growth," said IDC in a statment.
The strongest growth occurred in the notebook market, which increased 14.7 percent quarter-on-quarter, as a result of lower price, higher performance, longer battery life and integrated wireless LAN brought by new processor architectures, according to Joel Martin. He said the launch of ultra portable notebooks and tablets towards the end of 2002 and the new Centrino architecture early this year boosted the promotion of mobility within the Australian workforce.
Martin also lauded the performances of local PC vendors Optima (4.1 percent market share) and Ipex (2.3 percent market share), saying Optima is poised for strong growth in 2003 with its merit-based channel strategies and focus on retail. "This local hero shows that Australian brands can compete in the current market," said Martin.
At the top end of town HP remained the market leader, and second runner Dell saw its market share fall from 13.4 percent in the fourth quarter 2002 to 10.5 percent in the first quarter 2003. Toshiba moved to the third position with a 6.3 percent market share followed by IBM and Acer in fourth and fifth positions.
Desktop sales increased by 3.9 percent quarter-on-quarter, but shipments for Intel servers fell 8.9 percent sequentially.
