Rising notebooks, setting desktops

“The evolving look and feel of notebooks means they are increasingly popular amongst the fashion and image-conscious Generation Y. Notebooks have gone from conservative, grey-coloured boxes to flashy, multi-coloured style icons, and these days notebook users increasingly view their notebook as an extension of their personality and lifestyle. Desktop PCs don’t come close to meeting the “cool” factor of notebooks – further driving the transition to notebooks at the expense of the outdated desktop PC,” he added.

Frank Colli, managing director of reseller Leading Solutions, said: “As a percentage of unit PC sales, notebooks are taking an increasingly larger proportion of PC sales each year, particularly in the corporate sector. In the 2007 financial year notebooks represented 50 percent of all PC unit sales. In 2006, the percentage was 38 percent and in 2005 it was 33 percent.

“This growth effectively means corporations are now providing notebooks throughout their workforce and not just limiting their use to senior management and sales people. We see the key drivers for this change being the lower cost of notebooks and the push for increased employee productivity with staff given the ability to access the corporate network after hours from home.”

Colli said the reseller has witnessed employers offering more contemporary flexible working conditions, allowing employees to work from locations other than the office. As a consequence of this shift in corporate PC buying patterns, integrators are provided with opportunities to assist customers in improving network security, increasing network access and in providing remote hardware support.

“With our customers now having notebooks that may be scattered across the country or different parts of the world, they want fleet management solutions across continents and time zones,” said Colli. “Clearly the High Street is providing the notebook manufacturers with an outlet for considerable revenue growth and this sector is driving the technology convergence with the home entertainment industry. Corporations conversely look for better communications and system reliability at a price just above that of a desktop.”

Probably the most exciting change in the application of notebook technology is in vertical market software which is now providing real benefits to the mobile user, added Colli. For example, hospital emergency departments can now save considerable time by managing the patient admittance process from the ambulance in real time.

Analyst corner

So what do the unit counters at IDC and Gartner say about the future of the PC market? According to IDC, there was strong growth in the PC market in the fourth quarter of 2007. “Fourth quarter results show a very healthy PC market,” said Loren Loverde, director of IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. “There is a lot happening with vendors repositioning their channels and going after new markets while falling prices and portable adoption continue to drive volume. Despite fourth quarter strength, projections for the next couple years anticipate slower growth. Rising concerns about economic growth are likely
to reduce expectations further, although we’re still likely to see double digit growth through 2008 and probably 2009.” The IDC assessment includes of PCs includes desktops, notebooks, ultra portables and x86 servers.

David Daoud, research manager of personal computing at IDC, said: “The results do not reflect changes in the fundamentals of demand. Consumers continue to be attracted by mobile platforms and are benefiting from the proliferation of channels and heightened competition, which continue to bring prices down. Going forward, demand could soften further if bad news over the economy persists and consumer confidence worsens.”

Recent research from IDC’s Channel Panel found the percentage of partners seeing increased PC business was up three percent in the third quarter of 2007, driven by a gain of 10 percentage points for partners reporting growing laptop business. Lenovo enjoyed strong results in the third quarter with more than 40 percent of partners indicating increased business. Acer also had a good showing for partners reporting increased business and the highest percentage of partners seeing more than 20 percent increases in business.

According to Gartner, worldwide PC shipments totalled 271.2 million units in 2007, a 13.4 percent increase from 2006.