Corporate boost for Thailand’s PC market

DESPITE the Asia Pacific region registering an overall decline, Thailand’s personal computer (PC) market has recorded a jump in sales, according to market research firm, GfK.
 

“Sales performance has been robust in the beginning of the year due to a major IT hardware upgrading in the financial sector during the first half of the year,” said Wichit Purepong, general manager of GfK Thailand.

 

Purepong added that last year’s flooding incident also escalated demand for replacement PC devices by a large number of companies which were affected by the disaster.

 

A total of over 628,000 laptops and 392,000 desktop computers were sold to consumers and businesses across Thailand in the first six months of 2012, taking the combined market worth to approximately US$612.8 million. 

 

Recent findings by GfK, also showed that the business-to-business (B2B) market in Thailand accounted for 23% in volume sales and contributed nearly 28% to the overall worth of these two IT products.

 

Although laptops are generally more popular with end-users, GfK noted it is evident that desktops are in higher demand among businesses in the country, as reflected by the twofold sales volume of desktops over laptops. 

 

Overall, B2B desktop sales through corporate resellers made up 40% of the total desktop market sales volume, which is significantly higher than the B2B laptop segment which only occupied 12%.

 

Purepong also noted that laptops and desktop computers in the corporate market have 47% and 20% higher average prices respectively, compared to those in the retail sector.

 

“At US$828 and US$674 respectively, the significantly higher cost paid by corporations is due to the better specifications as well as additional charges that comes with the licensed software and services which accompany corporate requirements,” he said.

 

The research firm predicts that continued demand for IT hardware in the country is anticipated to sustain the buoyant performance of the sector in the later part of the year, driven by the education and financial sectors.

 

“With many large IT projects by corporations and the government such as the Office of Basic Education Commission in the pipeline, we can expect substantial IT hardware sales coming from these avenues,” said Purepong. 

 

GfK Thailand has been conducting a retail audit of technical consumer goods for over two decades. In 2012, the company also began tracking B2B sales in the IT sector, covering corporate transactions, specifically desktop computers, laptops, printers and PC monitors.