Death of PCs? Nobody told the Kiwis

PC shipments have risen by more than 20 percent in New Zealand as the Australian market continued to decline.

Research from IDC claims third-quarter 2013 shipments in New Zealand jumped 21 percent year-over-year to 166,000 units. Australia in comparison suffered a six percent decline over the same period dropping to 956,000 units.

Antony Sheen, managing director of distributor Altech, said PC sales in Australia were affected by low interest rates. "Property sales are booming in Australia and people are focussed on paying off their mortgage as soon as possible.

"New Zealand PC sales were not affected. I wouldn't say they had a dramatic growth, but the market was quite healthy," Sheen told CRN.

Sheen said mid-market PC products were "becoming harder and harder to sell," with sales opportunities being scaled towards cheap introductory models or feature rich top-end alternatives.

"Storage is also growing a lot as people need to store their high resolution photos and movies," he added.   

IDC senior analyst Amy Cheah said the growth mirrored the recovering New Zealand economy. "This is the first time the New Zealand PC market grew year-over-year in two years," she said.

HP dominated market share in Australia and New Zealand, IDC research reveals. The company has 39 percent of the New Zealand market and 23 percent of the Australian market. In New Zealand it was followed by Acer (14%) and Apple (11%), while in Australia Apple (15%) and Dell (14%) followed.

Table 1: 2013 Q3 ANZ PC Market Share