Power of Asian PC OEMs on rise
By Colleen Taylor, Contributing Editor -- EDN, June 5, 2007
The PC industry saw a significant shake-up in Q1, one that signals a larger rise of Asia-Pacific-based equipment makers, according to iSuppli Corp.
Taiwan-based original equipment manufacturer (OEM) Acer Inc. continued its quick ascent up the ranks of the global PC industry in Q1, with the company for the first time taking the place of China-based rival Lenovo Ltd. as the world's third-ranked OEM, according to a preliminary ranking from the market research firm. In Q4, Acer had held the fourth-place spot.
In addition, Acer posted the best growth performance among the top five PC suppliers on a year-over-year basis in Q1. The company's PC shipments rose by 45.8 percent to reach 4.2 million units in Q1, up from 2.9 million in Q1 2006. Acer snagged a market share of 6.8 percent in Q1, up from 5 percent in Q1 2006. Meanwhile, Lenovo had 6.4 percent market share for the quarter and climbed 16.3 percent in unit shipments year-over-year to more than 3.9 million in Q1.
Lenovo has cause to be nervous in the coming quarters, as Acer's ascent is by no means a fluke, iSuppli said. "Acer has momentum, is competing aggressively, and its strong channel presence is clearly paying dividends for both desktop and notebook shipments," Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst of compute platforms for iSuppli, said in a statement.
In fact, all of the top-ranked PC OEMs could stand to be on watch, iSuppli said, pointing to Q1's report as exemplifying a larger trend of a continuing shake-up in the market in which U.S.-based Hewlett Packard (HP) has long reigned supreme. Both Acer and Lenovo have expanded their respective market shares considerably over the past year, which iSuppli said reflects the increasing market presence of the Asia/Pacific-based PC OEMs.
"The power of the Asian PC OEMs is increasing, as we can see by the fact that these companies together accounted for 34 percent of total shipments from the top 10 PC OEMs in Q1, up from 31 percent during the same period in 2006," Wilkins added.
For now, though, HP is comfortably on top of the PC OEM heap. The company had 17.2 percent of the industry's market share, posting robust year-to-year growth of 26.2 percent. Q1 was not so strong for second-ranked Dell Inc., which was the only PC OEM among the top five to suffer a decline in units compared to the same period on 2006. The once-leading player in the PC industry saw a 6.8 percent reduction in units, with its shipments declining to 8.97 million units, down from 9.6 million in Q1 2006, iSuppli said.
In its report, the firm noted that Dell's weak performance is "all the more glaring" given that the top five PC OEMs in Q1 increased their collective unit shipments by 14.2 percent compared to the same period a year earlier, outstripping the overall industry growth of 8.7 percent.
Toshiba rounded out the rankings at number five, with 4.1 percent market share and solid year-over-year growth of 13.8 percent.
