INDUSTRY VIEWPOINT - PCs - coming to a shop near you
Richard Teversham, consumer marketing manager at Microsoft, assesses how selling technology through the retail channel has changed as the season of good will draws near.
Christmas is coming and everyone involved in the software and PC hardware business is hoping that this year the goose will be getting fat. The past few years of selling PCs and software into the home have been something of a boomtime for all concerned. With all the windfalls from the building societies and a buoyant economy, thousands of consumers have rushed to invest in PC technology.
So can we look forward to the same rate of growth this year in the home market? And what, if anything, has changed this year?
Over the past 12 months, the channel has diversified beyond all expectations.
Heavyweight superstores, such as Tesco and Asda, have taken their first tentative steps into selling PCs and related products and even well-known high-street names, such as Woolworths, Argos and the Early Learning Centre, have taken the plunge. The willingness of these household names to stock software alongside music CDs and videos is a comment on how far our industry has come.
Such a diversification means companies that manufacture products for the home PC can start to place their products where the consumer normally shops. Manufacturers hope that consumers will begin to make a few technology purchases as part of their normal Saturday shopping process. An impulse purchase of Resident Evil together with the latest Verve album, perhaps?
This move does not mean more retailers are targeting the same customer.
What it does mean is that the home computing industry is diversifying and maturing. It used to be centred around those who use a PC every day in the office and can see the benefits of having a computer at home. Now many people use home PCs - from the very young to the very old.
More than 1.5 million home PCs will be shipped this year, which is a 24 per cent growth on last year's figures. Even with all the media talk of a fast blackening economy, predictions of a strong surge of PC purchases at Christmas remain strong.
The majority of growth will come from first-time buyers who are attracted by competitive prices, a proliferation of software titles and their awareness of the PC as being an educational and lifestyle advantage.
Interestingly enough, another key segment in the market is the emergence of the two-PC family. Twenty per cent of sales this year have gone to consumers who see a need for an additional model. I believe that this trend inside UK households - a PC for mum and dad and a PC for the children - will become increasingly common.
Such growth represents a massive opportunity for every business involved in the retail channel. And it need not be limited to the big high street names - the thousands of smaller independent retailers and games stores will also benefit.
With so many more companies prepared to stock and promote software and hardware in valuable shelf space, we are finally on the road to becoming as mainstream as video camcorders. That has got to be a step in the right direction.
This is probably the last Christmas in which the purchase of technology into the home will be seen as something completely different. Next Christmas, buying a copy of Encarta will be as normal as leaving out a glass of sherry and a mince pie for Santa.