MARKET WATCH - Strong economy drives sales

Government scheme helps to boost consumer demand for home PCs, as market growth rates for 1998 continue to rise and the number of units shipped increases.

NETHERLANDS SUMMARY: 1998

ost consumer demand for home PCs, as market growth rates for 1998 continue to rise and the number of units shipped increases. As in most other European countries, demand for home PCs soared. In the Netherlands, this was due mainly to an incentive scheme by the Dutch government enabling consumers to buy home PCs through their employers at favourable prices. In addition, a very stable economy coupled with high purchasing power continued to drive sales of business PCs.

The Dutch PC market achieved high growth rates throughout 1998, leading to an overall growth of 22.1 per cent compared with 1997. Direct vendor Dell experienced the biggest rise in the total number of units shipped in the year with unit shipments rising almost 100,000 - from 79,784 in 1997 to 173,892 in 1998.

Packard Bell/NEC doubled its market share during the year - rising from a total market share of 1.7 per cent in 1997 to 4 per cent in 1998. Toshiba was another vendor which showed an increase. Its unit shipments rose from 68,069 to 95,910 for the year, enabling it to boost market share by almost 1 per cent - from 5.1 per cent to 5.9 per cent.

NETHERLANDS SUMMARY: Q4 1998

As predicted last quarter, the Dutch PC market performed very well in the fourth quarter, growing at 27.6 per cent compared with the same period last year. Compaq led the way in market share by a significant margin even though it dropped from 29.1 per cent in 1997 to 28.4 per cent in 1998.

Apple registered the biggest turnaround in the quarter, from minus 45.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of 1997 to 71.2 per cent in fourth quarter of 1998. As a result, its market share improved by 0.3 per cent.

Out of the top five vendors, three experienced a small reduction in their overall market share. Hewlett Packard's share in the quarter dropped from 7.4 per cent to 6.2 per cent compared with the same quarter a year ago. IBM also suffered - falling 2.7 per cent, from 12.1 per cent in Q4 1997 to 9.4 per cent in 1998.