Personal computer shipments seen to drop on supply constraints

MANILA, Philippines — Personal computer (PC) shipments to the Philippines are seen to drop this year due to supply constraints, research firm International Data Corp. (IDC) said.

Maciek Gornicki, research manager at IDC, said yesterday PC shipments are expected to decline by eight percent this year after posting a 16.6 percent growth last year.

He said projects implemented in the commercial segment which helped drive growth last year are not expected to be replicated this year.

“So if you look at 2018, commercial market was very, very strong. There were several projects. We do not see these projects to be duplicated,” he said.

In addition, he said the market is seeing supply constraints with providers of microprocessors unable to deliver to vendors.

PC shipments to the Philippines reached a total of 2.45 million units last year.

Acer maintained its leadership in the PC segment in the Philippines as it accounted for 20 percent or approximately 490,000 units of PC shipments last year.

The brand has been topping the Philippine PC market for 10 straight years.

Gornicki said Acer managed to keep its number one position in the Philippine PC market because of its multiple product offerings across all market segments.

While total PC shipments in the Philippines are seen to decline this year, he said the country offers a lot of opportunities.

The Philippines currently has a low PC penetration rate of seven percent.

By island group, the PC penetration rate in Luzon is at eight percent, Visayas at six percent and Mindanao at five percent.

Apart from low PC penetration rate, Gornicki said there are opportunities for PC vendors in the Philippines given the steady growth trajectory of the economy, increase in purchasing power, and availability of different payment methods.

“The Philippines is also going through slow pace of technological maturity and development which creates opportunities for growth in the PC space,” he said.